Do you feel like there is nothing changing in your life from week to week and you find yourself being in some kind of a rut? Do you have the same tasks in your mind that you avoid? Cleaning that you procrastinate with? In this post, I’m sharing with you how to improve your week AND it doesn’t have to take you much time to do so.
If you want to develop a productive weekly routine to set yourself up for success in the week ahead, then this post is for you.
Let’s dive in.
1. Improve your week by doing a weekly review.
This is something I do every Sunday and it’s key to making progress the next week. If you want to know how to improve your week, what you need to do is ask yourself:
– What went well this week? This can be applied to any area of your life. For instance, have you been rational when it comes to spending your money? Have you been waking up on time? Have you been eating wholesome food? Whatever went well, put it on the list.
– What didn’t go as planned?
– What do I need to do to improve for the week ahead?
– Where was I wasting my time this week?
– What can I do instead the next week? This helps you get rid of negative habits and develop positive ones. It can look like ”Instead of Netflix/Instagram, I will do yoga/meal prep/learn a new hobby/go out/read…
Additional questions you can include in your weekly review:
– 3 things you’re grateful for that happened this week.
– Highlight of the week.
– What are you looking forward the next week? If there’s nothing specific that you’re looking forward to, schedule some time to do an activity you enjoy. It can be as simple as having a bubble bath on Friday or taking a long walk in nature on Saturday.
If you want more motivation for the next week, check out these blog posts:
4 Goal-Setting Questions to Set Yourself Up for Success
3 Ways to Stay Committed to Your Goals
3 Ways to Increase Motivation in a Matter of Minutes
2. Fill in your planner.
Now that you know how to improve your week, write in your planner or your notes on the phone things you’ll need to do.
Ask yourself questions like what are the 3 things you need to do to achieve your goal next week.
Make sure you prioritize and focus on the things that are most important. I’d suggest having a maximum of 3 things on your daily to-do list so that you don’t overwhelm yourself with endless tasks. Keep in mind what’s crucial and what won’t guarantee the results you want.
P. S. If you’ve been on your own self-improvement journey and you want to dive deeper, check out my journaling bundle.
The bundle includes guided journaling workshops for building confidence, creating the next-level version of yourself, and setting goals. It’s so powerful to help you dig deeper within yourself and start making a change in your life so that you can reach your goals. Sound good? Then get your bundle on the link here and snag some pretty cool bonuses!
3. Do a brain dump.
Take a piece of paper and write down everything you need to get done, every task that has been on your mind lately. Maybe even something that you’re planning to do next week that you can do right now. Write every task that you can think of, get it out of your mind and in your schedule. And then – start crossing things off. If something takes you only a few minutes to do, do it now.
Don’t keep some minuscule tasks in your head all the time. Start doing them. Because, if not now – when? You definitely don’t want them wandering on your mind next week, as well.
4. Plan your meals & workouts.
If you want to eat more healthy foods but somehow can’t manage to find the time to cook, organize everything now.
We eat every day, but rarely question the food we’re eating.
Plan the meals for the next week so that you know what food to buy and you don’t find yourself ordering take-out because you have no idea what to cook, or you don’t have food you’d like to eat.
You can cook all the meals for the week in one day so that you don’t have to worry about it. Personally, I prefer preparing the ingredients instead of the whole meals on Sundays so that throughout the week I can mix it differently.
Either way, planning your meals is beneficial.
Here is a video of meal prep that will take you only 1 hour. Also, you might want to check out other videos on the channel for some ideas for healthy meals (and even workouts).
5. Clean & organize your space.
Waking up on Monday morning and having the entire apartment clean and fresh is definitely one of my favorite feelings. It’s such a nice way to start the week. Take a few hours if you need or 1 power-hour to clean everything.
If you need some extra motivation, you can watch some YouTube videos on cleaning. Somehow I find those very motivational and it always gives me some ideas for cleaning.
Here are a few I recommend:
Renee Amberg – SUNDAY CLEANING ROUTINE | Reset + Recharge
Rachelleea – Weekend cleaning routine! TWO DAY cleaning motivation & clean with me.
If you want some ideas on how to declutter so that you can be more organized, here are 6 ideas for easy things you can declutter on a weekly basis.
Or, if you want to dive deeper and remove the negative energy from your home, get some tips on clearing the negative energy in this post.
6. Add to your life things you enjoy.
How much time are you dedicating just for yourself?
It’s become so normal to rush around the whole day, trying to tick off as many to-do’s as you can. Work has become a priority. Making sure that everyone else is happy has become a priority. But what about you?
When was the last time you did things YOU wanted to do?
Whether that’s getting back to the hobby that makes you excited, booking a one-day trip to your favorite city in your country, going to the movies, cooking new food, etc.
I encourage you to make a list of things that make you excited.
Then, open your planner/Google Calendar and put at least one of the things on your list in your planner for the next week.
Ideas on how to do this:
– Saturday, 5 pm, cooking dinner inspired by Italian cuisine
– Tuesday, nail appointment at 10 am
– Sunday, 9 – 11, painting
etc.
Decide exactly when are you going to do this certain activity. Otherwise, it will be just a desire that you’ll soon forget.
When you have it in your planner, when you set a reminder 10 minutes before and even prepare for it the night before – it’s going to be much easier to do it when the time comes.
The point of this is to enjoy your life more. Bring the focus back to yourself and start living your life for yourself.
When you do more of the things you enjoy, you have more energy to show up in other areas of your life.
On the other hand, when you just run around taking care of everyone else’s needs besides your own, it will lead you to stress and burnout.
Read next:
How to Improve Your Night Routine
10 Things to Add to Your Morning Routine
8 Positive Habits that Changed My Life
Q: What is your favorite way to improve your week and prepare for the week ahead? Let us know in the comments 🙂
Until the next time,
Ivana
These are great and helpful.
Hey 🙂 I was reading through your blog for some inspiration. I want to get more organised and…suddenly I see picture of food that I made?! How funny! I hope you enjoyed my buddha bowl at Skog. 😀
Seriously? Haha 🙂 I loved it! Next time I’m in Brno, I’ll definitely visit Skog again 🙂
Great tips! The work weeks are definitely so much easier to get through when you are prepared and have a plan! ☺️ And exercise is definitely a huge factor!
I agree 🙂
Such great tips! I love to brain dump. When I get everything out of my head and on to paper good things start to happen quickly.
Definitely! I’m glad you find it helpful 😀
Great tips! I really need to start implementing some of these tips to better my productivity. I love the look of that salad you made! Have you shared the recipe?
Hi Amy, glad you enjoyed the post 😀 Regarding the salad, it’s Buddha bowl with tofu, baked sweet potato, lamb’s lettuce, cherry tomatoes, purple cabbage, carrot and sesame seeds. I didn’t make it, I had it in SKØG Urban Hub in Brno, Czech Republic. But it’s very easy to make and great for meal prepping because you only have to bake the sweet potato and cook the tofu and throughout the week you just mix it up with other vegetables 🙂