10 Sunday Habits – Set Yourself Up For a Great Week

by Marelisa

A Sunday well spent helps to set you up for a great week.

Ah, Sundays! Time moves differently on Sundays . . . like thick molasses. Sundays sound different, too–as if every Sunday the world collectively decides to turn down the volume. You can hear yourself think on Sundays.

Sundays are for waking up slowly, bit by bit. It’s a day for making organic waffles covered in maple syrup and topped with strawberries. Sundays are for savoring your coffee and reading the funnies. In addition, Sundays can be used as a weekly reboot. On Sundays you can reflect on the week that’s ending, reconnect with loved ones, take some time for yourself, and prepare for the week that’s up ahead. And to help you with your weekly reboot, here are 10 Sunday habits that will allow you to hit the ground running on Mondays.

10 Sunday Habits

Use your Sundays to end your week on a high note and jump-start the next week.

1. Plan Your Meals for the Week.

Regardless of whether during the week you stuck to your goal of eating healthy meals, or you fell off the wagon completely, on Sundays you can resolve to eat well during the next week. Stocking up on nutritious food on Sunday will save you money, time, and calories throughout the week.

Do the following:

Decide what you’re going to have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the upcoming week. Choose real food–whole foods that are more a product of nature than a product of industry. Also, include some healthy snacks.
Look through magazines or poke around Pinterest and find simple, drool-worthy recipes you can get excited about making.
Make a list of all the ingredients you’ll need to make those meals and snacks.
Check to see which of those ingredients you already have.
Make a grocery list containing all of the ingredients that you don’t have.

Make a visual reminder of what you’re going to be eating each day by getting a chalkboard to hang in the kitchen. Then, fill the chalkboard with your weekly meal plan.

2. Go Grocery Shopping.

Stock your fridge, cupboards, and pantry with healthy, great tasting food for the week that’s about to start by going grocery shopping on Sunday. A great idea is to set up a grocery shopping date with a good friend. That way you can catch up, and get the food that you’ll need for the week. Chat and shop!

3. Do Some Meal Prep.

Doing a little prep work on Sundays will allow you to save time cooking meals during the week when you come home tired from work. Just think: Sunday you is making sure that Wednesday you doesn’t decide to order a pizza because cooking will just take too much time. (Kudos to Sunday you.)

Here’s how to make meal prep more fun: find a binge-worthy Neflix series you can watch as you prep. Then, make it a rule that you can only watch that series while you’re prepping meals or cooking. Booyah!

4. Pick Out Outfits for the Week.

Did you get dressed on Monday only to discover that there was a button missing on the jacket you were wearing? On Tuesday did you find yourself running around your apartment frantically trying to find the shoes that go with the outfit you were wearing?

These hectic scenes can be avoided by deciding on Sunday what you’re going to wear every day of the week. Do the following:

Look at the weather forecast for the week and pick out outfits accordingly.
Take out your chosen outfits and make sure that everything is clean and ironed, and that there are no holes, rips, or missing buttons on any piece of clothing that you selected.
Decide on the shoes and accessories that you’ll wear with your outfits.

Have a designated spot in the closet for your weekly clothes, or put up some wall-mounted racks. There are some great ideas for planning a week’s worth of outfits for the ladies, here. And for the men, good luck!

5. Review the Past Week.

The “weekly review” is a core component of many productivity techniques, including Getting Things Done. Basically, you’re going to ask yourself how the week went, what you accomplished, what you did right, and what went wrong. Ask yourself questions like the following:

What did I get done this week?
Did I stick to my schedule? If not, what went wrong? How can I prevent these things from happening going forward?
Was I focused when I was working?
What activities did I enjoy this week?
What frustrated me this week?
What did I learn this week?
What should I have spent less time doing?
How could I have made better use of my time this week?
What were my energy levels like this week?
What should I have spent more time doing?

A weekly review is a great opportunity to give yourself credit for what you did right during the week, and plan to do better where you went wrong.

6. Look at the Big Picture.

Sundays are a great time to step back and look at the big picture. Ask yourself the following:

Is my work life going well?
Is my home life going well?
Am I happy with the direction in which my life is headed?
Am I moving closer to my long-term goals?
Am I on track to achieve my yearly goals?
How am I doing on my monthly goals?
Are there any goals that need to be revised?

Use Sundays to make sure that you’re not missing the forest for the trees.

7. Plan and Schedule the Next Week.

Create a master to-do list for the week that’s about to start by asking yourself questions such as the following:

What are the 3 most important things that I need to get done this week?
What needs to get done this week so that I can move my goals forward?
What have I been avoiding that needs to get done?
What projects do I have in progress? What are the next steps that I need to take for these projects?
What appointments and meetings do I have this week?
What opportunities do I want to take advantage of this week?
Who do I need to reach out to this week?
How can I make this week less stressful?
What am I looking forward to this week?

Once you’ve completed your weekly to-do list, schedule each task throughout the week. If you find that your schedule is packed too tighly when you’re done, ask yourself which tasks you could eliminate, delegate, or postpone.

8. Review Your Budget.

Take a look at your transactions during the week. Then, ask yourself the following:

How much money did I spend?
Did I stick to my budget?
Why did I overspend? How can I prevent this from happening again?
How can I make sure that I stick to my budget this week?

If you went a little off budget, that’s OK. Just resolve to do better the next week.

9. Steal An Hour Just For You.

Set aside one hour on Sunday–more if you can–to recharge and practice some self-care. Alone. Yes, completely alone. You can do any of the following:

Take a long, hot bath.
Go for a walk.
Sit down with a good novel.
Write in your journal.
Do something creative: draw, play a musical instrument, do woodworking, or write a short story.
Listen to a guided meditation.
Listen to music.

It’s not just introverts who need solo time. Extroverts need to set some time aside to disconnect from the world as well. Being alone gives your brain a chance to unwind from the week that’s ending, and to reset and recharge for the week that’s about to begin.

10. Have Fun with Your Family.

Throughout the week there may lots of things that pull you away from your family. However, make it an unbreakable rule that your Sunday family time is sacred. Then, during family time, make sure that you do something fun.

Here are some ideas:

Take your family out to brunch.
Play a board game together.
Go outside and participate in a season-appropriate activity: go sledding, play frisbee, participate in a 5K, have a snowball fight, play football, go bike riding, and so on.
Volunteer together in the community.
Go to a museum, the zoo, or an aquarium.

Make it a habit to spend some fun, quality time with your family every Sunday.

Conclusion

If you follow the ten habits laid out above you’ll be ending your week on a positive note, while setting things up so that the week that’s coming up can be great. Live your best life by adopting these 10 Sunday habits.