Four ways to get a head start to your week.
By Viridiana Word
It is not uncommon to catch me at the grocery store from time to time throughout the weekdays, my hair frazzled, the makeup I carefully applied 10 hours before quickly melting off, and see me dragging my feet through the aisles because my growing boys went through three gallons of milk in two days. Just as easily, you can see me racing through the city trying to get my children to their respective activities, usually fashionably late. The truth is, being a working mom means that I am zapped by 5 p.m., and my mind is constantly racing with a million tabs open. It’s exhausting work, yes, but there are a few ways stay organized and to minimize the any fires we must put out when starting our workweeks.
- Take a look at the week ahead. Before starting off the week, I like to take a glance at my future. While I would love it if this meant having a crystal ball that warned of every tantrum my children would throw, my best bet right now is the visible representation of the week in front of me. This, for you, could be a wall calendar, the datebook on your phone, or if you are anything like me, your planner. Call me crazy, but I keep a desk calendar, a phone calendar (complete with work, family, and husband-related events), a work lesson planner (shout out to my fellow teachers!) and a comprehensive, everything-in-my-life-I-must-remember-because-I-will-forget-it-otherwise planner. Yes, I am a planner lady. The cover of my “everything” planner literally says “I am Very Busy” on the cover of it. It’s not lying.
Every Sunday morning, I grab my precious cup of coffee and I open it to take a look at what I know is ahead of me. I tell myself that these are the things I can control, and prepare myself mentally for each day of the week. I indicate priorities, and highlight the places and events that require my presence. If there are deadlines coming up, I make sure they are bright and visible, to put them on my radar. If you want to get really fancy, you can color-code for each aspect of your life. For example, appointments go in pink, my husband’s work days go in green, activities for my children in black, work meetings in orange, etc.
Now, before you start thinking that this is a lot of work and too time consuming, I want to assure you that you are correct. It does take time to lay everything out, color-code it, add stickers, and make it smell pretty (say what?), the works. But hear me out: there is no reason why this time you spend planning cannot be a soothing and relaxing time. Get creative, add some flair to your planning activities. Grab a cup of coffee and get in your head space. If nothing else, jotting down and looking at all the things you have to do will, at the very least, give you the feeling like you have your life together and under control. I don’t know about you, but as a working mom with three small humans that dictate my life, that’s a pretty accomplished feeling. Not a bad way to combat Sunday-night anxiety, amiright?
- Don’t think of Monday as Monday. As cliché as it may sound, it all starts with a positive attitude. Many of us think of Sunday as the last day of freedom from our weekend, and it is not uncommon to hear of the Sunday-night panic that ensues the feeling that our workweek is about to begin. I’m here to tell you, it does not have to be this way. Monday can be a fresh start for you. Instead of thinking about it as the end of your freedom, think of it as the beginning of a new week. Set new goals for yourself—small enough to be attainable and within enough reach to make you feel victorious when you reach them. Look for ways to improve yourself and your habits. For instance. Each Sunday as I am looking at my week ahead, I stick these Habit Tracker stickers on my planner which allow me to check off each day that I drank enough water, reached 10, 000 steps, gave myself 20 minutes to read or meditate, or even remembered to accomplish a beauty routine at night. Some weeks, I’m satisfied to go to bed without makeup! Think to yourself, what are you mostly looking forward to accomplishing this week? Give yourself a pep talk and repeat affirmations to yourself. Express gratitude for the week behind you and pay attention to the amazing possibilities that are in front of you.
- Set a weekly routine. When I was a kid, my mom would sometimes groan when I would ask her to stop at the store. It is as if one stop between work and home was a monumental task. I understand her now. Stopping for gas, groceries or even thinking of any major chores to do throughout my working week are incredibly daunting, especially after a long day of work and chauffeuring children around town to their respective activities. So what is a working mama to do to alleviate this? Pick a day out of the week to set everything up. For me—you guessed it—Sunday works best. Each week, my car gets a wash, a full tank, I make my grocery rounds, and everyone’s laundry gets done. Sometimes before noon, and, if luck is on my side and my husband is home from work, I get to go alone. If I’m up for it, I’ll meal plan and even lay out my outfits for the week—anything that saves me time and energy in the days ahead. Taking the thinking and decision making out of trivial events during the workweek means that I can use that energy to chase after my tiny humans.
- Know how to dodge the panic when it doesn’t go as planned. My amazing supervisor and fellow working mom once said to me that being flexible means you never get bent out of shape. Everyone knows that “life happens,” right? Sometimes unexpected things occur that are beyond our control and we must adapt and overcome. When you are working professional and a child-wrangler at the same time, “life happenings” are our way of life. So, when you are looking at your week ahead, acknowledge that some of the things in pen may need to be crossed off or rescheduled. Preparing lessons for my students takes hours. I’m not kidding. So much thought and practice goes into it, that it almost seems like a series of dressed rehearsals. Taking time off as a teacher also take hours of preparation and careful planning. Theres a running joke among teachers that when we are ill, it takes more work to plan to be out sick than it does to just suffer through it. Regardless, each morning I show up to work thinking I’m going to deliver this amazing lesson, and most days I do just that. Some other days, however, I get a call that my 6-year-old is throwing up all over the classroom, or that he kneed himself in the face and has a swollen eye (no clue how that happened, not sure that I want to know), or that my 7-month old baby is running a slight fever and I must pick him up. The point is, when these things happen—and they will, trust me—you must learn to roll with the punches. Just come to terms that your life is chaos and you are the coordinator or this mess. And what a blessing it is to have that task.