Bye Bye Sunday Evening Blues – 5 Smart Ways To Prepare For A Successful Week

Prepare for a successful week and get rid of the Sunday evening blues for good! 

The desire to extend the weekend, and make it as long as possible is only natural. After all, weekends are when we spend time with our families, eat delicious food, visit new and exciting places or even just have a lie-in.

Unfortunately, by holding on to the weekend we are making the coming week even more difficult. Sunday evening can be used in two ways. Ignoring the challenges of the coming week while repressing that rising panic you feel in your gut. Squeezing the weekend of every last drop of enjoyment until you can do no more.  Alternatively, you can use your Sunday evening to embrace the challenges of the coming week and prepare for them. Set yourself up to succeed, and feel calmer in the week ahead. The latter is an approach that your future self will thank you for!

5 Smart Ways To Prepare For A Successful Week

Set your goals and get motivated 

The first thing you can do to maximize your chances of a successful week is to define what counts as success. To do this you will need to set your goals for the coming period. Of course, there are a variety of ways to do this from using the SMART technique to making a list of the things you want to get done, and the things you wish to reduce such as bad habits. 

 

However, to give yourself the very best chance of success you must include another vital ingredient – motivation. Indeed, goals are only words unless we have the true motivation to follow them through. 

There are a variety of ways that you can get yourself motivated for the week ahead. Many people find quotes such as these on Monday motivation for the week helpful in getting them into the right frame of mind. Others choose small rewards for themselves if they meet their goals. This can be very motivating, even when we are finding it hard to stick to our goals. 

Yet another option is to consider the benefits that achieving certain goals will afford us. A common goal is to lose weight. For parents, This can allow them to play with their kids more. As well as live a longer life and so be around for their children for longer. Factors that make the goal far more meaningful and so can help them stay focused when things are challenging. 

Plan out the whole family’s schedule for the coming week 

In addition to setting the goals that you want to achieve each week, it can be very useful to take some time to plan out the whole family’s schedule. Indeed, there are many benefits to doing this including having a much better understanding of who needs to be where, when. The good news is that you can now buy calendars and planners that have space for multiple family members, something that means you don’t have to keep a separate one for each person. 

 

Another benefit of planning your family’s week out ahead of time is that it will allow you to see and rectify any clashes in your schedule. Thereby reducing stress in the week. By having a weekly schedule, you will also be able to plan in time for you to complete your own goals.  Studies show that by setting a specific time to complete your targets you are much more likely to be successful with them. 

Plan out the ways you are going to have fun and rest 

Things that many people forget to add to their family schedules for the week are fun and rest. These activities are just as important as Dr’s appointments, after-school clubs, and family events, for a balanced and healthy life. 

Knowing that there is adequate time for rest and fun can be helpful for all family members. Especially when they have to do things they would rather not such as work late one night, do a school presentation, or complete chores. 

By formally scheduling these activities, they are much more likely to happen. This means you are optimizing your use of time. By scheduling fun and rest times you are also sending a very important message to your children on how vital these things are for health and well-being. One that hopefully they will take on board in their own lives as they mature. 

Meal prep for the week 

As planning, shopping, prepping, and cooking meals are tasks that can take up a considerable amount of time during the week. Getting ahead on this task can help things go smoothly. Of course, what I am referring to here is meal prepping, which means preparing family-friendly recipes for the week ahead so they just need to be cooked on the day. 

There are a variety of meal prepping options you may wish to consider as well. The first is to complete the planning stage only. This involved deciding what you will have to eat each day and doing the shopping in line with this. 

The next is fresh meal prep. This involves chopping the vegetables and marinating the meat. You will also complete any other task that makes cooking the final meal as simple and fast as possible. For this type of meal prepping in particular, many people prefer the one-pot option. Where after prep, all the ingredients can be cooked together to create a fast, fresh, and healthy meal. 

Another option for fresh meal prep is to use a slow cooker. The difference is that instead of cooking just before it’s time to eat, you add the ingredients to the slow cooker each morning and let it cook down while you go about your day, ready to be eaten in the evening for dinner. 

Finally, you may wish to go a step further and prep freezer meals for the week. This entails cooking complete meals often in aluminum trays and then cooling and freezing them. Then all you need to do is get one tray out every morning to thaw through the day and pop it in the oven to cook an hour or so before dinner. While it takes a bit more time on Sunday night, it frees up an hour or so each day so you can relax, spend time with the kids or even help them with their homework. 

Get to bed at a decent time 

Last of all, when it comes to prepping for a successful week, it pays to head to bed early. At least at the time, you would on any other workday. Yes, I know it can be tempting to eke out those last few remaining hours of the weekend, but all you are doing is making things hard for your future self. 

 

Instead, acknowledging that the week is coming, and spending some time on Sunday evenings preparing for this and resting for the week ahead can help make the translation far easier and much more successful. Indeed, your future self will thank you when Monday morning arrives because you will already have a jump in the week ahead!