A Sunday Well Spent, Brings a Week of Content

 
Louise Attenborough, Chocolate Collective

If ever there was a phrase to live your life by…this is it!

Using Sunday to prepare for the week ahead, rather than wasting time and energy worrying about what’s to come, is one of the best things you can do when it comes to bringing some calm and order to both your working and personal life.

Here are some of the ways, as business owners, busy mums and good friends, we use our productive skills to take back control and make sure we achieve more, every week.

1.      Review the week ahead

Meetings, calls, dentist appointments, children’s parties, online shopping deliveries – whatever you have planned for the week, write it down in your diary. You will feel much calmer and collected once you have all the things you need to remember, written down in one place, and available for you to refer to throughout the week. It will also help you manage unexpected demands on your time or attention throughout the week, working out which days you have capacity and which days are choc-a-bloc.

2.      Write a To-Do List

We LOVE a list! Once you know what events you have planned for the week, it’s time to have a think about what tasks you need to complete. Look at content planners, social media schedules and any other regular client tasks you need to complete. Then write a list in order of when you need to tackle them. This will allow you to get started first thing Monday morning.

3.      Schedule social media

As a business owner, proactive social media posts are vital to maintaining an online presence for your business, but they can often fall by the wayside, when there are other, more pressing demands. Get ahead of the week by taking 30-45 minutes to schedule some social media posts. There are so many amazing, free, scheduling platforms available online, there’s really no excuse not to try them. Your posts could include, highlighting a product or service you offer, pictures from a work event you attended the week before, or even some inspirational advice your followers may find useful.

*Bonus Tip – Sunday is also a great time to check your social media analytics – it will tell you who is reading your posts and when, so you can get a better understanding of your customers and what appeals to them.

4.      Food Preparation

What could be more mindful and relaxing than spending an hour or so doing some cooking while listening to the radio. The fact that it will help you save time for the week ahead is an added bonus! So, whether you’re cooking a pasta bake, a cottage pie or a delicious curry, simply double the amount and portion any extra into Tupperware ready for freezing. If you’ve been busy with meetings, rushing to collect the kids from after-school club or frustratingly stuck in traffic on the commute…cooking will be one less thing to do when you finally get home.

*Bonus Tip – if you have a spare 30 minutes on a Sunday, plan your meals ahead and order an online shop. You’ll save yourself time, head space and money through better planning and preparation.

5.      What are you Wearing?

If you plan what you’re wearing on a Sunday, you can wash iron and hang your clothes by day. Just imagine how much time that will save you each morning!! Time that can be spent hitting the snooze button a few more times, time spent chatting with the kids over breakfast or even time replying to some extra emails.

6.      Lights Out

Sleep is so important. If you go to bed early on a Sunday, your refreshed mind will be better able to concentrate, be more resilient when it comes to facing the tasks of the week ahead, and improve your mood, making that To-Do list look totally achievable!

7.      Tidy Space, Tidy Mind

Whether it’s a top to bottom clean or more of a quick polish, take the time to straighten the cushions, put the pots away, clear the Lego. You will wake up feeling so much more in control on Monday if your space is clear and organised. Pay particular attention to your desk, if it is exactly as you left it on a Friday, complete with an old mug of tea, scrawled post-its or even a computer still whirring away, it will feel like you’ve left things unfinished from the week before. Use 10 minutes on Sunday to clear, file, wipe down and shut down your computer so it has chance to update (and a good sleep too!)

8.      TLC

There is one last thing you should do every Sunday, and that’s to spend some time taking care of yourself. It could be releasing stress and cathartic energy through a run, stretching your mind and your muscles with yoga, or even taking a relaxing bath and painting your nails. Ensuring you spend some ‘me’ on a Sunday will help you unwind, clear your head and ensure you’re ready to face the week ahead, whatever it may bring!

 

By following some, all, or even just one of these Sunday tips, you’ll begin the week in a calmer, collected and more productive way. However, if all this just seems like an impossible dream, it may be that you need to call in the Bees. We can help you take stock, get organised and motivate a kick start in forming new productivity habits for your business. Just give us a buzz!