Sunday habits or routines can help you to be more productive in the week ahead.  Yes, getting excited about Monday mornings and the upcoming week is hard.  However, Sunday habits can create a much-needed mind shift for a successful and productive week.

Before talking about Sunday habits, it is important to talk briefly about habits in general.  According to habit experts, our level of success and productivity is primarily determined by consistently practicing good habits.  You have to practice good habits every day.  You cannot procrastinate and practice bad habits during the week and expect that a few good Sunday habits will magically make them disappear. 

So why focus on Sunday habits? Well, when you do the same thing every Sunday, it sets the tone and declares your intentions for the rest of the week. If the previous week was productive, they might build on the momentum and successes. Or, if the previous week did not go well, they can refocus you to be more successful. Additionally, they can improve the quality of your life, deepen your spiritual and emotional connections, reduce your stress, and improve your family life.

So, take out your journal and planner, and let’s start these simple Sunday habits!

Sunday Habits – One: Reflect on the Previous Week

Taking the time to reflect on the previous week can teach you about yourself, bring self-awareness to what you accomplished, how you lived your truth, and what lessons you learned.  And ultimately, this time of reflection will increase your productivity for the week ahead.  So, why is that?  Well, when you intentionally take time to reflect, you access your subconscious mind. 

Our subconscious mind helps to activate our goals and motivates us to accomplish them.  According to Psychology Today, the subconscious mind is “the source of creativity, intuition, inspiration, inner knowing, interconnectedness, and spiritual enlightenment.”  So, tap into your subconscious mind and write the answers to these reflection questions in your journal. Here are examples of reflection questions to ask yourself on Sundays:

• What was my biggest win?
• Where did I feel stuck?
• What was my most significant area of procrastination or resistance?
• How did I dishonor my body?
• What lessons did I learn?

Sunday Habits – Two: Write in Your Gratitude Journal

Regardless of how you answered your reflection questions, it is time to express gratitude for the past week.  As mentioned in a previous post, gratitude is a thoughtful, meaningful expression of thanks.  And while I encourage you to express gratitude daily, journaling as one of your Sunday habits takes you deeper. Your Sunday gratitude list acknowledges that life is good even when you were not as successful or productive as you wanted to be. Remember, you do not have to feel grateful to be grateful.  And, there is no perfect way to journal.  You can create a bullet list or write complete sentences or long paragraphs.  

Here are some ideas to get you started.

• A job that provides me with money to take care of my family and me
• A career that helps me to grow professionally
• Ability to work from home
• Being a good homemaker
• Quality time with family despite a busy week
• Supportive partner 
• Taco Tuesdays with friends or coworkers
• Finishing a difficult task
• Ideas for a new project
• Met my exercise goals
• Stayed within my budget
• Mentors and advisors who help me to succeed
• A good book that helped me to get unstuck

Read It’s My Time: A Guided Journal for Deeper Self-Love

Sunday Habits-Three: Write Your Goals for the Week

To achieve what you want in life, you must spend some time setting your goals.  Writing out your weekly goals is an important Sunday habit for determining where you want to be and how you plan on getting there.  It is important to point out that goals are different from desires.  A desire is a strong feeling of wanting something or wishing something would happen.  For example, wanting to finish writing a book or sticking with a new eating plan are “desires.”  

On the other hand, a goal is an intention that is followed by a plan of action.  A book will not be written until you have a goal with action steps.  Similarly, adopting a healthy eating plan will not happen until you have specific action steps.  Goals provide focus, prevent procrastination, and allow you to measure progress.  Achieving a goal is something only you can accomplish. Indeed, no one can achieve your goal because it is solely within your control.

Use Sunday as the day to set a new goal or reset an existing one.  You should have one or two goals for several areas in your life. For example, you can have goals for areas like:

• Work
• Health
• Exercise
• Weight management
• Relationship
• Professional development

Remember, it takes multiple attempts to change a bad habit or establish a new one, and you will learn something every time you fail and try again. 

Sunday Habits – Four: Plan Your Calendar and To-Do List

Review your calendar and plan your important tasks for the week.  I prefer to use my computer for these tasks, but you may want to use a physical planner that you can touch and write in.  Just do whatever works for you.  

I know a few people who just make a list for Monday. However, I need more than a to-do list. Indeed, I try to plan my work week down to the hour for each day.  Now, this is important.  Your calendar and to-do list must align with your week’s goals.  For example, if you plan to write a book, you need to have blocks of time to write.  

In addition to your meetings and work-related activities, you should also plan some “me time” on the calendar.  For me, that includes going to the gym, going to lunch, and taking a short walking break. And, of course, if you have a partner or children, your calendar should reflect activities and events with them or for them.  For example, a date night and piano recital are essential things that must be on your calendar.

One of my Sunday habits is to look at my calendar for an upcoming birthday or special event.  And those events cue me to send birthday cards, make phone calls, send texts, or mail packages.  They all get put on my weekly to-do list.

Read It’s Our Time: A Call-and-Response Journal of Women’s Voices

Sunday Habits – Five: Practice Some Serious Self-Care

Making time for personal care to recharge yourself is a great way to spend a Sunday. Undeniably, it will pay off during the week. As mentioned in a previous post, self-care means intentionally choosing to have a healthy relationship with yourself. Furthermore, it means you do all you can to take care of all the dimensions of your self—body, mind, and spirit. Some serious self-care is needed if you are a:

• Stay-at-home mom raising amazing little humans.
• Busy mom kicking butt in the workplace and chauffeuring kids to their soccer games and dance recitals.
• Single entrepreneur working on getting your business off the ground or taking it to the next level
• Full-time graduate student.
• Teacher working two jobs to make ends meet
• Caregiver for elderly parents.
• Retired person who babysits grandchildren more often than you would like
• Write your own . . .

There is no correct way to do self-care. Listen to your body, and do something fun that makes you feel good. Some self-care activities you can do as part of your Sunday habits include:

• Doing a home facial
• Soaking, massaging, and moisturizing your feet
• Deep conditioning hair and wrapping it in a soft hair towel
• Sleeping in late
• Coloring, drawing, painting, or doodling
• Practicing a meditation or deep breathing activity
• Doing yoga
• Doing a deep stretching routine
• Eating breakfast in bed
• Doing brunch with friends
• Reading
• Napping on the couch under an ultra-soft blanket
• Minimize using social media
• Attending a prayer or worship service
• Listening to your favorite music

Read Prayers for Healing and Strength: A 30-Day Journal to Stop Emotional Eating, Stress Eating, and Binge Eating.

Sunday Habits – Six: Clean Your Purse, Backpack, or Briefcase

Cleaning out and organizing your purse, backpack, or briefcase is one of those Sunday habits you can do while watching TV.  Those receipts, candy wrappers, and notes add to the clutter.  And for some reason, I usually have pieces of gums stuck to the bottom with a few coins and the headache pills that spilled out.

If you use a backpack, tote, or briefcase for work, then restock your business cards and organize your folders, sticky notes, pens, etc.  Indeed, you can get done in 30 minutes or less.

Oh, and don’t forget to spend a few minutes cleaning up your email inbox.

Sunday Habits – Seven: Plan Your Wardrobe for the Week

Now, this is one of the more difficult Sunday habits.  However, it will save you time and stress from staring into your closet every morning trying to find something to wear.  One of the biggest advantages of preparing your outfits for the week is knowing what still fits well.  Nothing is more stressful in the morning than finding that a pair of pants are too tight or a button missing from a blouse.  So, take some time to make sure that everything is ready for the workweek.

So, think about this the same way as planning your menu and preparing meals for the week.  If you have young children, planning what they will wear every day of the week will also save you time.  Here are some tips for planning your wardrobe for the week.  Of course, the assumption is that you already finish your loads of laundry.

• Check your calendar for any big meetings or events that need a particular outfit.
• Select an outfit for each day.
• Iron or steam the clothes as needed.
• Select your basics, such as pants, skirts, or dresses.
• Choose tops, jackets, etc.
• Select accessories, such as jewelry, scarves, etc., for each outfit.
• Choose shoes for each outfit.
• Select bras, panties, body shapers, leggings, tights, hose, etc., for each outfit.

Yes, it’s a lot of work the first few times that you do it.  But think of it as you would if you were going on a business trip for the week. Remember to pay attention to patterns and textures, and go bold for a few days! Check out Pinterest for ideas on putting together great outfits for the week.

Sunday Habits – Eight: Meal Prep a Few Meals for The Week

Sunday is a great day to meal prep for the week. Indeed, this is a routine that keeps giving.  There is nothing like that dreaded question, “What’s for dinner?”  And because planning and prepping your meals is intentional, you will quickly notice that you eat healthier during the week.  Some of the advantages of meal prepping include:

• Spend less money
• More efficient grocery shopping
• Eat more nutritious foods
• Stay on track with health goals
• Reduce impulsive spending and eating

Learning to plan and prep healthy meals for the coming week will take some time.  However, it gets easier, especially when you get home from work and you just need to warm up dinner.  Many people prepare all their meals for the week—breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  However, I usually focus on lunch and dinner. Either way, find a meal plan that works for you and earn some bonus points with your family.

Sunday Habits – Nine: Go to Bed Early

There is no better way to kick off a productive work week than going to bed early and getting enough sleep.  Really.  Well, Monday is going to come, and you need to be ready to give it all that you have.  My Sunday habit sleep routine includes the following:

• Turning off the TV by 9 pm
• Spraying linens with one of my unique aromatherapy blends
• Turning on sleep sounds (phone app or sleep sound machine)
• Reading for 30-45 minutes
• Journaling and expressing gratitude
• Praying
• Turning the lights off by 10 pm

Here are my essential oil blends for anxiety and stress relief

Now, It’s Your Turn

Well, I hope that you will incorporate a few of these Sunday habits to prepare yourself for the upcoming week. I think you will also enjoy the blog posts on 10 Morning Rituals to Make You More Productive, 7 Evening Reflection Questions to Increase Productivity, and 10 Simple Ways to Practice Self-Love.

• Which of these Sunday habits will you try?
• What are some of your favorites Sunday habits?

We look forward to hearing about your experience with intermittent fasting.  And, you can join the conversation on the Keep It Tight Sisters Facebook Page.

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Keep It Tight, Sisters.

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