4 Organization & Planning Tips for Busy Moms
Hey friends!
It’s Sunday morning, which means it’s time for me to get my kids breakfast with a cartoon on the TV before I sit down and do the one thing that helps me get a handle on the week ahead.
Every Sunday morning, I pull out my planner and organize our schedules & meals for the coming week. Having a good idea of what’s on our plate before we head into a busy week is SUPER helpful for me.
So today, I’d love to share a few tips for a great Sunday Planning Session!
1. Look At Your Schedule
Jarrett and I have a family calendar hanging in our kitchen, and all of our lives are kept on there. If it’s not on the calendar, it’s not happening! So, on Sundays I’ll sit down with that calendar, and transfer important events over to my planner. The planner is what I look at on a daily bases, so I need those important things to be there!
I enter everything into my planner with a color code. Our family events are circled in orange, my business to-do’s are highlighted in pink and appointments are in blue. Anything super important also gets highlighted in bright yellow! I’m a visual person - I have to SEE EVERYTHING. The color coding helps me to look at my planner and know who’s doing what at a glance!
Once everything is in the planner, and I know what my week looks like, I start to plan meals.
2. Plan Your Meals
This is the ONE part of Sunday planning that is crucial for our health. If I plan out our meals for the week, we’re also much more likely to save money by eating at home, instead of on the go! And we are eliminating the “ease of processed foods” aka fast food options and take out. #yuck
When I sit down with my planner, I take a look at our schedule and figure out what our dinners should look like. Is one day busy during dinner time? That should probably be a night for a great crock-pot recipe. Is family coming over one evening? Maybe that’s the night I want to do a big dinner.
It’s SO important to have your schedule done first before you plan your meals – this way you can plan accordingly instead of ditching your big dinner on Thursday to grab pizza on the way home, because you forgot you’d be driving during dinner time.
3. Write Out Your To-Do List
After meal planning, I write out my task list for the week. I divide this list into two sections: HOME & WORK (or personal). I know my schedule pretty well by this point, after writing out my appointments and planning my meals, so I have a good idea of how many things I can realistically accomplish. Some weeks are harder than others and I like to give myself grace and plan for the chaos instead of feel overwhelmed as it plays out. (This makes a big difference mentally!)
I make this master list as a reference for the entire week. Then, as each day comes, I’ll pull a few tasks from each side of the list – some home tasks, and some work tasks. This way, I’m really making progress on the things that matter, instead of flying by the seat of my pants or spending too much time in one area. I’m a work-a-holic so if I plan other things in, I can put the work down and actually have some FUN if I plan it!
4. Focus In On Your Priorities
Your master to-do list should probably have the MUST DO’s at the top of the list but I’m careful not to make everything a priority. List your top three things and try not to care if the rest of the things take a back seat.
And that’s all the planning I do on Sundays! Honestly, it only takes about 30 minutes, and then I have such a better focus for the week coming up. I know what I’m doing, when I’m doing it, and I’ve left room for life to go a different way - that happens all the time!
Ladies-if you’re feeling overwhelmed by your busy weeks, or you wake up on Monday morning already feeling like a raging lunatic, I’d encourage you to try a little Sunday planning session! It’s the ONLY way I can get my head on straight before the week begins!
Xx, Jen
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