Three Ways I Prepare for a Busy Week
This essay originally appeared in the Monday morning newsletter on 1/27/20.
Do you ever get that horrible impending doom feeling lingering over you before the start of a busy week? That was me yesterday.
My “Sunday Scaries” were really dialed up as I thought about my to-do list for the week ahead and what I needed to accomplish at work and home before my mom arrives Thursday and stays through the weekend (yay!).
I had two options:
- Sit in my anxious thoughts and worry myself into a tizzy. (What present-day me wanted to do.)
- Be intentional about how I could use my Sunday to set myself up for success. (What future me would want.)
Even though it wasn’t what I wanted to do in the moment, I picked the second option. And now I am here to tell you that I survived and that it is still possible to have a happy Monday in the midst of a busy and stressful week.
When thinking about today’s newsletter, I thought you might be interested in hearing about what I did to anticipate and prepare for a busy week. So, read on below to find the three key things I did yesterday to set myself up for success today. Nothing in the below is groundbreaking information, but I hope something sticks with you and helps you the next time you need it.
Before we dive in, I feel it’s important to caveat that I do not do these three things every weekend. I chose my Sunday prep depending on what I need that day. Sometimes I do two of the three and sometimes I do zero of the three.
And like everything in life, there’s always a trade off. Yesterday, I chose to do these three things because I knew the reward would be a feeling of relaxation and control today. But that choice also meant choosing not to spend time recharging, connecting with friends or watching the Grammy’s. Catch me on another weekend with a different set of circumstances and there’s definitely a chance I’ll pick time on the couch with a book over meal prepping.
But if you find yourself feeling anxious about a busy week ahead, consider trying these three steps:
- Brain dump.
- Make decisions in advance.
- Channel anxious energy productively.
Brain dump everything. And I mean everything. Get out a piece of paper and just start writing all the random things you have to do. Personal, work, school, random people you have to call back, whatever! Get it all out of your head and on paper. Then, after you’ve scribbled out all the things, feel free to go back through the list and sort by category, priority, etc. Sure a long to-do list can look daunting, but I always feel better once I have a visual of what I need to accomplish instead of random to-dos popping up in my mind like iPhone push notifications.
Make decisions in advance where you can. This is my favorite step and the one I think makes the biggest difference. Did you know that we are estimated to make about 35,000 conscious decisions a day? Craziness! All of those little daily decisions require us to expend mental energy. Ahead of a busy week, I LOVE figuring out what decisions I can make in advance in order to reserve some energy for the bigger things I need to tackle. For example, yesterday I planned out simple meals for the week, scheduled my workouts and picked out my outfits for work. I am not using any of my energy this week to mentally debate when/if I should workout or what I should have for dinner. These little decisions made in advance free up space in my mind and allow me to allocate my energy elsewhere.
Channel anxious energy productively. When I am feeling anxious, I like to distract myself with some type of activity (remember how I talked about decluttering to help with post-holiday/vacation blues?). For me, I channeled my anxious energy and turned it into something productive by going to a Soul Cycle class, meal prepping and spending an hour doing a few tasks for work. As a result, I got a workout in, have a fridge full of ingredients chopped and prepped for healthy meals and decreased the amount of things on my work to-do list. It sounds funny, but it can feel therapeutic to meal prep and busy your hands with a simple task like chopping vegetables instead of sitting and fretting. And you get to reap the reward of easily throwing together meals with your prepped ingredients all week long.
What do you think? Could you see yourself doing any of these things next time you are feeling anxious about a busy week?
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