5 Things To Do Every Week

Some weeks can feel like a month. They can be full of curveballs and surprises, but with some planning, you can help yourself have a smoother week by practicing these 5 weekly tips.

#1 Check out your planner. See what lies ahead the next week, what didn’t get done last week, and ask yourself how you did on your goals. I suggest this on a Friday so you can gauge your weekend and plan your upcoming week. Reviewing your week can eliminate multiple trips to the stores. It allows you to group like items together and save gas and more importantly, time.

Scenario: You have a birthday party on Saturday but have to do a Target run on Tuesday because your children have something they need for a school project that they told you about the last minute.    

Your Win: Because you already checked your planner you know that when you do your Target run you can grab the items they need for the project, the gift for Saturday, and the cat food on your shopping list to avoid the extra trips later in the week.

#2 Plan your meals. The dreaded five o clock dinner dilemma can be so stressful, but planning can help alleviate that stress. Planning can look like different things depending on your season of life.

If you like to cook every night, then you can check your cupboards to take inventory and then plan your weekly menu and a shopping list. By putting this to practice, it will leave you with one less decision every night as you already have it written down and have all of the ingredients ready to make it.

If you’re in a fast-food season, you can write out where you will be eating every night. By making this decision early in the week, you’ll save time and gas. You’ll avoid the frustration of driving around trying to figure what looks good. Most places have apps that allow you to order ahead and save time. They may even offer a discount or have items on the menu for less than what you would pay in the store. If you can spare the expense because it frees up your time (to start the baths and homework), you can even use the different delivery methods.

If you’re a meal prepper, then this would be the day you make your menu for the week, month, or whatever your timeline is. This would also include the day to go shopping and the time to prep and freeze your meals for the week.

Whatever is that you choose to do, there is no right or wrong way. There is no guilt in eating out every day or cooking every night. Do whatever works for you and your schedule. But whatever it is, plan it out and take the guesswork out of the five o clock dinner dilemma. Your mind, body, and family will thank you for it.

#3 Wash your clothes and plan your clothing for the week. Planning will save you time in the mornings to do something more productive. It will avoid wearing duplicate outfits in the same week and take the guesswork out of the mornings freeing up time to pray, meditate, or anything else productive rather than just staring at your closet. Another pro is that when you get home, you won’t have to clean up the mess that was made in the morning when you pulled out every potential outfit trying to figure out what to wear.

This is a bonus to help plan for special occasions. You can avoid having to do a mad search for that perfect pair of earrings, the right shoes, or suddenly remembering that the suit you planned on wearing and were supposed to get dry cleaned never made it to the dry cleaners.

When you plan your wardrobe for the week, you feel more confident about your choices, free up your mind for other decisions, and enter your day feeling better prepared.

#4 Plan when you’ll clean the house. This might look like cleaning bathrooms on Tuesdays, dusting the entire house on Wednesdays, changing bedding in Sundays, or yard work on Saturdays. Unless you live alone, this doesn’t have to be done by only you. This is a great time to get everyone involved. Some of my greatest memories were cleaning the house together with my family listening to music that rang throughout the home while we cleaned, laughed, and enjoyed working together.

If you prefer a little more flexibility, you can schedule a fifteen-minute pick up in the morning and another fifteen-minute pick up in the evening. This method allows you to practice having the time scheduled for cleaning but gives you the freedom to choose what you want to clean or what room you would like to focus on for the day.

#5 Take Inventory. Are you almost out of toiletries? How much will you need to buy to last the week? One trip to Costco, Target, or Wal-Mart helps save time and money. Buying in bulk sometimes gives better discounts and saves money in the long run. Going shopping for necessities once a week helps reduce the stress of trying to figure out when to add a quick trip to grab the toilet paper you’re out of and having to wait in line forever for the single item only to find out that you’re out of toothpaste a couple of days later. It also helps reduce the number of times you go to the store each month, which means less spending on impulse items.

To help save time you can use curbside pick up or in-store pick-up. This will definitely help the budget because you won’t be tempted to buy anything just because it’s on sale or looks nice.

Practicing these five things every week will help free up extra time in your day and leave you feeling confident during your days that follow.