Happy Monday, friends! I’ve revived this previously-published post this afternoon in hopes that you’ll find it super helpful this week!
I think it falls right in line with my How to Create a Life You Love series (if you missed last week’s post, you can find it here!). To create a life you love, you have to learn how to make the best of your week!
You’ll notice that this post is very much Spring-designed. If you find the printable helpful, but would like to see a Fall-version, please let me know! I’ll be more than happy to do that, or make other versions of printables that are more tailored to you. 🙂
You can find tons of blog posts for planning your week, but they don’t always go into very much detail. They simply tell you to just do it!
So it inspired me to create a post that is totally devoted to how to plan your best week yet, with all the fancy details to go along with it.
If you’re a paper-planner like me, go ahead and open up your planner the “Monthly” overview section. If you’re tech-savvy and use a digital planner, go ahead and open your calendar app and go to the monthly section.
1. Schedule time for appointments, meetings or events taking place this week.
Use this space to think about doctor appointments, meetings for work that you are involved in, or any events that you’ll be attending, such as birthday parties, sporting events or dates with your significant other.
This helps you to put all of your have-to-attend items in one place, keeping you organized for the week ahead.
Pro tip: As soon as you know about an appointment or an event you’re attending, go straight to your planner and write it down in this section.
Next, go to the “Daily” section of your planner and write in those same events scheduled in their appropriate dates. This will help you stay organized by being consistent between your monthly and daily sections and you’ll always know where you need to be, so you don’t miss any important meetings.
2. Write down your weekly goals for work, personal life, side-hustle and relationships.
This step requires some thinking-power, but it will serve you so well as you proceed through the coming week.
Pick up a piece of paper (or use my free printable created just for this exercise!) and write out your top categories for your goals. For example, mine are “Work, Personal Life, Blog, and Spiritual.”
Once you have your categories written down, then think about your goals within each of those categories that you would like to achieve. Write those down and then we are onto step three!
3. Break down those weekly goals into smaller, more manageable goals to be spread throughout the week.
Now that you know what you want (and need!) to accomplish this week, you can start breaking them down into smaller goals throughout the week.
We tend to tell ourselves what goals we want to achieve, but forget that we have to actually schedule them into our daily lives to make them a reality.
You’ll want to incorporate your smaller goals into your daily section in your planner. Be sure to consider what time you will work on your goals and stick to it!
4. Close your planner and start a grocery list!
We can’t talk about planning for your best week ahead without mentioning one of my favorite things: food! To avoid the “I don’t know” or “I don’t care” responses to you questions about breakfast, lunch and dinner, it’s best to plan out all of your meals for the week.
Check out my post on how to save money while grocery shopping before you go!
Pro tip: You can do a lot of the prep work on Sunday, if you want to get even more ahead of the game and save yourself some extra time.
Once you’re finished with your grocery list, take a look at your laundry basket(s). It’s great to have your laundry finished up before starting your week so you don’t mentally plan an outfit that’s in the bottom of your laundry basket. 😉
I like to throw in a load of laundry before going to the store. By the time I get back, it’s ready to switch over to the dryer and I can start another load of laundry in the washer.
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5. Grab a cup of coffee and relax!
I’m sure you didn’t expect this to be on the list of to-do’s! You cannot pour from an empty cup, my friends. It’s important to recharge for your week ahead, and do something that you enjoy.
This could be watching an episode of your favorite show, reading a book, or even taking a nap. Do what makes you happy and enjoy this precious time before the week begins.
There’s a little work in this step, but it’s fun, I promise! Go back to your planners and schedule in some self-care time for the week ahead. Sometimes, we get so busy that we forget to take time for ourselves. Self-care is anything but selfish.
Take time to take care of you. Remember, you can’t take care of someone else if you don’t take care of yourself (somebody needs to hear this today).
I hope that you received some inspiration from this post! Have a wonderful week ahead and please let me know if you have any questions!
Let’s Chat!
How often do you use your planner?
Do you like to plan for the week ahead or wing it?
Would you like for me to make more printables for this post? If so, what kind?
Susanna says
Hi, Loved the grab a coffee ! I have to do list, grocery list, list for everything but I think I might need to scale back little.
Hi, Susanna! So glad you loved that part. 🙂 Sometimes our lists can get a little overwhelming and we just need to take a break and relax a little!
With school back in session and starting a new job I definitely am looking at some planning and organization strategies. Thank you for the tips and suggestions!
You are very welcome, Ashley! Best of luck to you with school and your new job – you’ll do great! 🙂
These are such great tips!
Jennifer
Effortlessly Sophisticated
Thanks so much, Jen!
I’ve always been a huge fan of creating smaller goals within a larger goal. Ticking off small tasks is always encouraging when it comes to completing the bigger one. Separating your goals out by category was a great idea, I’ll have to try that!
Ashlee | https://www.maybeafterbrunch.com
I totally agree, Ashlee! It really gives you more momentum by breaking things down, plus it makes things less overwhelming. I hope you’ll love categorizing your goals!
This is all so useful Hun – thank youuu! Gorgeous post, have a lovely week 🙂
Grace || http://gracelouiseofficial.blogspot.co.uk
Thanks so much, Grace! I hope you have a wonderful week! 🙂
These are such great tips. I love #5. It’s so true, you need to take breaks and recharge or you burn out.
Thanks so much, Julie! 🙂 That’s one of my favorites as well. 🙂
Fab tips and a great read!!
Thanks so much, Elle-Rose! 🙂
Writing down the weekly goals is such an important thing to do!
Lia II https://livingaudaciously.com/
I completely agree, Lia! Thanks so much for stopping by! 🙂
I’ve been so demotivated with my life lately so i highly needed this post. Thanks for sharing!
https://lifewithmins.blogspot.com/
I hope you find it helpful, Minhal! Feel free to send me an email if you need more motivation. I know you’ll do great things! 🙂
This was so helpful! I definitely need to plan more and take the time to set mini goals 🙂
https://mariannyc.com/weekapaug-inn-rhode-island/
I’m so happy you found it helpful, Mariann! 🙂 You can do it!
Thank you so much for this post. I really need read it in this moment. It is so informative and useful.
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I’m so glad to hear that! 🙂 Thanks so much for stopping by!