As I gotten older, I’ve noticed that some weeks are just better than others. I have days that I wake up super energized, motivated, and ready to go and get things done. I eat all the healthy things, get my workout done first thing in the morning, and actually finish all the things on my to-do list with time to spare.
Then there are those days where I just feel ridiculously exhausted. I wake up cranky, am not motivated to do anything productive, and end up eating junk all day. Which in turn makes me feel even more terrible.
Unfortunately, the latter is becoming more and more frequent and I’m determined to make a change. Of course, it’s not feasible to wake up super happy everyday but I think there are ways that you can set yourself up for success in the week.
Small simple changes usually make the biggest impact and lead to the greatest results. Today I wanted to share a few ways I’m going to start implementing to make my weeks better.
Schedule exercise
I’ve fallen off the workout wagon lately and I’m 100% sure it’s from the move. With everything that I had going on it was difficult to get my daily workout in. Even now that we’ve been settled for a few months, I’m still not back into my normal routine.
I know that I have to start scheduling time for it just like everything else in my life. If it’s on the schedule, it will more-than-likely get done. If it gets done then I feel so much better during the day.
Set goals for the week
I used to only set goals for the year and then break it down into monthly tasks; however, I have found that setting goals for the week helps keep me more focused and on track. It also helps me not procrastinate – which I am so terrible at.
Setting goals and achieving them in the week will also give me extra motivation to keep going. I will see progress sooner and then want to do and achieve more.
Clean out my inbox
I’m probably one of the only ones that still has the default “inbox”, “social”, and “promotions” tabs still active in my Gmail. I actually hated them at first, but then turned them back on when I started getting overwhelmed with the number of emails coming in.
I realized that having things filtered properly – blog subscriptions to “social” and shopping emails to “promotions” – keeps the clutter out of my regular inbox. That way I’m not tempted to instantly click on an eye-catching email as soon as it lands and then get stuck in the vortex that is online shopping or someones blog.
From now on, once a week, I’ll go in a delete all the promotion emails and then open and read all the blog updates that I want. Anything that I’ not interested in anymore gets unsubscribed from or just deleted if I don’t want to read it. Then I can start the week with inbox zero and feel fresh and clean.
Truly disconnect
A long time ago I actually deleted the Facebook and Messenger apps from my phone. I hated the time I was spending endlessly scrolling for no reason. I also realized that it just didn’t make me feel good to be doing that.
I want to take it a step further now and truly disconnect from my phone and computer for a specified time each night and also for a whole day on the weekends.
I would so much rather be spending that time with my kids and husband making memories instead of having my face in a screen all the time.
Indulge in self-care
I’ve always been terrible about carving out time for myself. With 4 kiddos it’s hard to get time alone. However, I know that in order for me to be the best mom I can be, I need to make time for myself.
Once a week, I want to start indulging in a hot bubble bath and some wine, or doing a DIY beauty treatment in the bathroom, or just cozying up in my bed and reading a few chapters of a book. Not only will it help my skin and body, but it will give me some much needed alone time to decompress from the week and prepare for the week ahead.
Schedule time with friends
With as busy as life has been lately, I’ve been seriously slacking in the friend department. Unfortunately, I also haven’t made too many new friends yet but we do actually have some from back in Michigan that live here too.
Scheduling time with friends is super important for my mental health and I need to start spending time outside of the house and kids. Also, getting out of the house more would help me meet and make new friends.
If there are weeks where I am unable to make face-to-face plans with friends, scheduling a phone date would work. Or I could also schedule one day to get out of the house and go to a coffee shop or brewery and get some work done.
What are some ways you’re going to try and make your week better?
