Ever feel like your life is running you? That’s about to stop. Start running your life TODAY with my top five tips to own your week!
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Have you ever arrived at the end of your week (or end of your day) and thought, where did the time go? You had a list (mental or physical) of things you wanted to accomplish and you didn’t complete (maybe even start) a single one. Stop allowing your life to run you and start running your life with my top five tips to own your week!
1. Create An Intentional Schedule
You can either run your life or you can let your life run you. This tip will help you run your life!
Take a minute to write out all of your roles. You’re a mother, a wife, a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, a friend, an employee, an entrepreneur and so on. Then ask yourself, within each role what is most important to me, what are my responsibilities and what do I love to do. These are your priorities.
Once you’ve determined your priorities within each role, it’s time to selectively procrastinate. You can’t do it all, so decide what you are going to leave to another time. Maybe it’s the house work? (For me, it’s always the house work!)
After you have decided what you are going to selectively procrastinate at, it’s time to create your flexible schedule based around your top priorities. You can do this every month or every couple of weeks – whatever works best for you.
For example, one of my roles is mama. In our house, I am responsible for feeding the family, so I will schedule time to meal plan and prep. What is most important to me and what I love to do is spend quality one-on-one time with the kids. So, one week I will schedule a date with my daughter and the following week I will schedule a date with my son. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, the only requirement is it’s just the two of us. Does that make sense?
This is fairly new to me and I have been trying my best to implement this system. It has positively impacted my life, so I just had to share it with you. Thank you to a dear friend for sharing it with me! My tip: be sure to schedule time for yourself and leave white space. Don’t fill every minute of your schedule.
2. Weekly Review With Your Partner
Does your partner text you often to clarify who’s picking up the kids from school or who’s taking the youngest to soccer and the oldest to dance? This tip is about to change that!
Sit down with your partner at the beginning of the week and go over what’s happening that week. Talk about who is responsible for what. For example, I’m working late on Tuesday night so I’m going to need you to pick up the kids that day.
Having a weekly meeting eliminates the daily texts and evening conversations about who’s responsible for what the following day. It provides both parties with advance notice and they are able to plan their personal schedules accordingly. Hold each other accountable. It’s up to each of you to figure out a way to remember what you are responsible for that week. One of you may write it in your day planner and the other put it in their phone. Do what works best for you and let your partner do what works best for them!
This tip won’t make your week perfect. There are bound to be changes in schedules and things that pop up, but for the most part you should both know what’s happening during the week and what you each need from one another. Communication is key!
3. Meal Plan & Prep
Do you find yourself scrambling at 4 o’clock to decide what you are going to make for supper? Meal planning to the rescue!
This is how I survive the responsibility of feeding my family.
Create a weekly meal plan and schedule time to meal prep. It’s that simple! When you get home from a long day at work or school the clock is ticking until it’s time to put the kids to bed. This part of your day can be crazy, meal planning and prepping can make them much more enjoyable.
Here’s how I do it:
- Meal plan and order groceries online.
- Pick up groceries the next day.
- Clean fruit & vegetables as I unpack my groceries.
- Meal prep the following day.
In my opinion the meal planning and making the grocery list takes the most work. MyFreezEasy creates a meal plan AND makes your grocery list for you. Try it for free!
Another thing you can do is keep your weekly meals plans in a binder or folder and when you are short on time, grab a meal plan from your binder or folder. Boom! You have a meal plan in seconds.
4. Start Each Day Right
There are seven days in a week. If you want to own your week, you need to start each day right!
As women, we spend so much time meeting other people’s needs and in the process we forget about our own. What better way to start your day than spending some time taking care of you! Start each day with a morning routine. Don’t have one? Create one! It doesn’t have to be long, but it should start before your kids rise.
Need some inspiration? Read all about my morning routine here!
And, more about the importance of self care for mama’s here!
5. Set Boundaries
Ever said “Yes” when you really meant “No”? Let’s talk about boundaries!
Oooo, this is a tough one for me. It’s something I consciously have to work at and has become crucial in these last couple months. When you work for yourself, people think you can be flexible with your work hours. Which is true, you can be flexible. That’s the beauty of working for yourself. But, the work is not going to complete itself so you still have to get those hours in somewhere.
About a month into blogging I set working hours. I work while my kids are at daycare and two evenings a week. If we get a supper invite on a work night and my schedule doesn’t allow me to work another night that week, then it’s a no. If I run personal errands while my kids are at daycare, then how can I say no to my husband when he asks me to run an errand for him. I quickly learned, if I expect others to respect my working hours I need to respect them myself.
Unfortunately, the reality is, we usually violate our own boundaries by allowing them to be crossed. Or, we’ve never actually set boundaries out of fear of what others will think.
All it boils down to is knowing your limits and understanding that it is more than okay to say no. Time is a nonrenewable resource. We don’t get our time back. So guard your time and your energy by setting boundaries.
It’s so easy to get caught up in what you think other people expect of you, instead of staying true to what you want. Don’t feel pressure to do something just because other people are doing it. Your life is not about other people, it is about YOU! In my opinion, it’s perfectly acceptable to disappoint others if it means staying true to you. So, mama, do you!
There you have it, my top five tips to own your week. What do you think? Would implementing one or more of these tips help YOU own your week? Let me know in the comments below.
