How I Plan My Week

Filling out my planner every week is for sure one of my favorite activities.  I love sitting down at my desk with my favorite drink to write out all the things that I want to accomplish in the next 7 days.  But planning is for sure the easy part.  It's a whole other thing to get myself to accomplish all (or most) of those things throughout each day.  But I love the direction that it gives my days and helps keep me going.  Especially since a lot of my days are pretty wide-open as a stay-at-home/part-time-work-at-home mom.

So, lets get into it!

1. Make a latte.  Hot latte with my homemade caramel simple syrup.

2. Gather my tools.  That includes planner and stickers, pen, and phone.

3. Sit down at my desk.  Sometimes I sit at our kitchen island or on the couch beside my husband while he watches something sports-related on his phone. Lately I've been doing it at my desk and it's fun for something different.

4. Write down weekly rhythms and any events or appointments that are already set.  I almost always do laundry and my weekly cleaning on Mondays so I try not to schedule anything else that day. And during the school year we usually go to the library on Thursday mornings for storytime and I currently work at the office every other Friday morning.  So those are often the few things in our week that are on a set schedule.  I also like to include my husbands plans, meetings, etc. because it can effect if I have extra free time in the evenings or not.

5. Check the weather. I like to see what the forecast is for the week because (in the summer anyway) I let that dictate what day I'll be doing any amount of baking or other cooking if it's going to be a hot week.  And it also helps me decide which day to do errands in town or spend time outside.

6. Decide what to do on leftover free days.  There is usually at least one free day in our week so I try to schedule a play date or go to a park and do something extra fun and special.  I don't always have a good plan for what to do on the extra free days in my week and I want to do better at being intentional in spending it wisely!  Like going to visit someone or do something meaningful.  -- I certainly feel like I have more margin in my days right now to do extra things so I want to be wise with that.

7. Look at my planner every day and check things off!  I keep my planner in the junk drawer in our kitchen (and sometimes right out on the counter) so that it's easy for me to look at as I go about my day and remind myself what I should be doing. 

8. Meal plan.  I like to meal plan after I've done my weekly planning because then I have a pretty good idea of what kind of meals will suit better on certain days or what I want to cook according to our plans or the weather. 

How about you, do you plan your days every week or each day? Do you love it? Hate it? Or not plan at all and fly by the seat of your pants? :)