“A Sunday well spent brings a week of content.” – Unknown
It’s Sunday! The day to sleep in, binge-watch the Netflix shows or maybe go out to have some fun. The entire day just flies. Before you know it, the dreaded Monday morning arrives.
Spending your Sunday in this manner is fun. It gives you short-term happiness.
But if you want to be productive and successful which will result in long-term happiness, you need to own your Sunday. There are a few things that you must do every Sunday that will set the foundation for the next week.
If you want to live an organized and productive life, where you get things done and are living life as the best version of yourself, these are the 15 things you must do every Sunday or weekend.
Sleeping in on Sundays is so comforting. But comfort is the enemy of growth.
If you have the habit of sleeping in till late morning or noon, that is the first habit that you need to stop.
If you sleep in, say till noon, half the day is over. That leaves you with less time to do other things. Also, it messes up your sleep cycle. And you end up waking irritated and annoyed on Monday morning.
How you feel when you wake up in the morning has an impact on the rest of your day. And it would be wise to wake up with satisfaction rather than the other way round.
So, take a conscious decision that you will not sleep in on Sunday. Try to wake up at the same time as the rest of the weekdays. Depending on the time you wake, maybe you can give yourself an extra hour of sleep.
I wake up every day at 6 am. On Sunday, I try to wake up at 7 am. I will admit that I slip some Sunday and end up sleeping till 8. It is difficult to wake up before 10 am on Sunday.
Avoid sleeping in on Sunday, so that you are in control of your Sunday rather than the other way round.
Reviewing the week that has gone by is extremely important. When you look back and analyze you will be able to understand where you went wrong.
You will know which decisions and choices that you made have affected you negatively as well as positively. In the light of these realizations, you will be able to make better decisions for the next week.
You will know what choices and decisions that you have to avoid to have a productive week ahead.
Reviewing your week helps you understand your mistakes, identify your successes. And this will help you to learn from the past week and make better decisions for the coming week.
A brain dump is a simple process of emptying all your thoughts in your mind onto a paper (or digitally in an app).
Why you should do a brain dump on Sundays?
All of us tend to use our minds as a place for storing information and ideas. During the week, you might have collected a lot of them. This can lead to a cluttered mind.
You might have felt it before that your mind feels paralyzed due to the amount of information it’s holding. When it happens, you might not be able to think straight and take decisions accordingly.
Doing a brain dump helps to reduce this mental clutter.
When you write down the list of things you have to do, the ideas you have, or the deadlines to be met, you will be able to see everything in one place. And according to this, you can plan your week.
A brain dump is a simple yet effective process that will help to relax your mind and think clearly and with clarity.
Related Post : how to do a brain dump effectively.
After you do a brain dump, you will have a list of things that you have to do. Maybe you have to do it within the next week, maybe by month-end or maybe some tasks don’t have deadlines.
Once you have this list, it’s time to plan your next week.
You have to make a plan on which things you will get done on which day and at what time.
For example, let’s say, you have a project to be submitted on Friday. Instead of making a mental decision that you will get it done someday before Friday, make a plan for it. Maybe you can spend 1 hour every evening from Monday to Thursday to get the project done. It’s better than doing the entire thing before Thursday night.
Also, make sure to schedule time for things that don’t have a deadline to meet. You want to read the book that you always wanted to do but just can’t find the time to do it. There is no deadline for this so the chances are that this will get postponed because other important things that have a deadline will keep on coming.
So, to read that book of yours, schedule time for it. Write it down in a book or block it in your calendar. Until and unless you don’t plan for the things that don’t have a deadline to meet, it’s not gonna happen.
Plan and schedule time for reading, journaling, self-care any such activities that are important for your self-development but don’t have a deadline in real life.
On weekdays, even if you do regular cleaning it might not be proper. You might just put away all the papers into a file while cleaning your workspace. Or don’t keep your clothes in an organized way because you are in a hurry.
There might not be enough time to do a deep cleaning on weekdays. So, Sunday is the day for it.
Throw all the unnecessary papers, file the important ones properly, clean up your closet, throw off unused things from the kitchen cabinet.
Doing a deep cleaning organizes your stuff and it will help you to be more productive.
Cleaning your digital clutter is as important as cleaning your physical clutter. The digital mess can significantly decrease your productivity.
So take out some time on Sundays to delete all the unnecessary and unimportant files, documents, pictures from your phones and laptops. Also, organize and back up the files and photos that you need.
Removing the digital clutter not only saves you a ton of time but also protects your digital devices too.
Related Post : How to do Digital Decluttering
Does your inbox drive you crazy? It might be filled with many promotion emails, newsletters that you subscribed to a long time ago but you don’t read them anymore, work emails that aren’t necessary anymore.
Block some time to clean up your inbox. Delete all the unnecessary emails, download the important attachment files from emails and back them up. Stop using email as a place where you store things.
Full inboxes waste 27 minutes per day. If you are a person who has to use email extensively, then you should spend time cleaning up your inbox. Even though you might not realize it, it saves you a lot of time.
Do you take proper care of yourself? It is difficult to do so when you have a busy schedule.
On Sunday, you should spend time taking care of yourself. It can be in anyways.
It might be by cooking your favorite meal, or by applying face and hair packs, listening to your favorite music.
You deserve some time for yourself for the work you have done in the week that has gone by.
Related Post : 20 Self Care Ideas for your Overall Well Being
Meal planning is simply deciding in advance what you will eat during next week.
This simple step will save you a lot of time during the weekdays. This will also help you to have control over your diet.
After the cleaning and meal planning, you will have an idea of things that you need to buy. Instead of doing the shopping during weekdays, take some time out to do the shopping for the coming week on Sunday.
When you do bulk shopping by anticipating the needs of the coming week, you will be saving time.
Imagine this: You want to cook your favorite meal but the ingredients are not there. Then you will have to go shopping to get the ingredients to do the cooking. Can you imagine the time that is being wasted here?
All of this could be avoided if you had done meal planning and bought the necessary groceries accordingly.
These things might sound simple. But when you start taking care of these small things by planning, the cumulative amount of time that you save is significant.
Choose your outfits for the weekdays in advance. And iron them. Also choose the accessories, if any, that you want to wear with them ready.
This sounds simple. But as you guessed, this will again save you a lot of time.
It is better than spending a lot of time in the morning deciding what to wear, then picking accessories and a bag to go with it, and then ironing.
You shouldn’t hustle in the morning. Mornings should go in a flow. When you decide about your breakfast and outfit in advance, things will go smoothly. Also, it will help you to avoid making any decisions in the morning. You will feel much more relaxed if you have pre-planned everything.
Journaling on Sunday is amazing. It can be useful to understand the events that happened, the emotions you felt, and so on.
There are no rules when it comes to journaling. Journaling every day has its benefits. But don’t give up on journaling if you don’t enjoy doing it every day.
Try journaling on Sunday when you are having your me-time. When you don’t have to rush through your day. Chances are that you might enjoy it this time.
Related Post : 28 Effective Journaling Tips for Beginners
It is extremely important to keep a check on your spending habits. Take out some time on Sunday to understand where and how you are spending your money.
Keeping track of your spending habits helps you understand whether you are spending too much, are saving enough, etc.
Budgeting helps you to be in control of your money. This can be beneficial for you in the long run.
Our near and dear ones are what make life meaningful. We work hard to earn an income to provide for our family, to give them the best of best.
We often get caught up in the busyness of submitting the project before the deadline, working hard to earn that college degree. And in between all this, we end up spending not enough time with our friends and family.
It might not be possible to call and catch up with your friends, family, and cousins during weekdays. But you can catch up with them during weekends.
Make sure that you spent some quality time with your loved ones. Video call your long-distance friends and family. Have Sunday nights as family game nights.
On Sunday, keep aside some time to make memories with friends and family.
What is one thing that you always wanted to do? It might be starting a Youtube channel or a blog. Or maybe writing a book, selling your artwork on Instagram.
These dreams usually take a back seat when you have a regular 9 to 5 job. You are so busy that you can’t even remember your weekdays starting and ending. It might not be possible to spend time working on the things you love and want to do during the weekdays. You have hundreds of other responsibilities.
Sunday is also no different as a matter of fact. You have another set of things to do on Sunday. But whatever it is, spend some time doing the things that you wanted to do always, which gives you joy.
What is the point of spending time only on Sunday for your side projects?
Well, it is better than never getting started. The compounding effect of actions is something that the human brain cannot comprehend. Once you start, you will see making progress, even though it is slow and steady. You might not see the results right away, but all of your efforts will not go in vain.
Your journey might be slower than others who have the luxury of time to spend on their passion. But hey, everyone’s journey is unique. It doesn’t matter if you take time. What matters is you get started and go on with it. No matter if you have only Sundays to spend on it.
I know that this is a huge list. I will be honest with you, I sometimes struggle to get all these things done.
What I do is start doing things on this list from Saturday evening. Things such as Inbox Zero, journaling, self-care, budgeting are what I do on Saturday evening.
If you are just starting to have a routine on Sunday, don’t try to do all the things on this list. It can be overwhelming in the beginning. Pick a few things that you feel comfortable with and start. And then add a few other things the coming Sunday.
When I first began my Sunday routine, I started with inbox zero, self-care, and planning my outfits.
After doing them for 3 consecutive Sundays, I felt comfortable. And then I added, doing a brain dump, reviewing the past week, and planning for next week.
Take it slow. Start doing a few things on the list from Saturday evening to make it easy on Sunday.
I hope you found this post useful. Do share it with your friends and family and help them grow.