How to Have a Good Week

Hi Folks!  Happy Monday!
  Are you feeling ready to tackle a new week and get things done?  If not, let me tell you one of my biggest (and simplest) ways to have a super productive week.  And let's face it, who doesn't feel good about a productive week?  Are you ready?  Here it is....Proper Planning.  Yup, that's it.  Seem too easy?  It is.  But it works.  Here's how I do it.  I pick one day a week when I know I have a few free hours, and I make that my planning day.  Then, I sit down and write out my week.  I start out with my calendar commitments:  work, family events, Dr.'s appointments, and church.  Then, I add in my goals for the week:  Reading, Writing, Eating Well (Yes, I actually block out time and write on my daily calendar "Read- 9 am," "Breakfast-8:30am.")  I promise you that as silly as it sounds, writing things down in a specific time slot will help you to actually get them done.  It's easy to say, "I'm going to read this week."  But the week gets busy, and you run from brush fire to brush fire just trying to stay ahead, and by the end of it all you realize you didn't get any time to sit down and read that book this week.  Maybe next week?  If you keep up like this, I promise you it will never get done.  If you want to be serious about being productive and becoming your best self, written planning is vital to your success.
 Another planning tool I use is an app called Wunderlist.  And no, sadly, I do not get paid to endorse them, so you can take me at my word when I tell you that I use and love this app.  What Wunderlist allows you to do is to make lists and to set reminders for them, so for example, on my app I have a list of birthday cards that need to be sent, and I set the reminder for a week before the person's birthday.  Simple right?  But it has streamlined my life immensely.  I also keep on this app, my grocery list, my list of tickets for events that need purchased at different times throughout the year, a running list of books I want to read, a list of gift ideas for my son and husband, and a whole host of other lists.  What I can tell you is that this saves me an enormous amount of time because I can just add things as they pop into my head.  No more roaming the house before a grocery trip trying to figure out what we need.  When I take the last stick of butter out of the fridge, I add it to my Wunderlist and forget about it.  It saves me the mental energy of trying to remember a long list of items that need taken care of somewhere in the future, and it also saves me time on a weekly basis when I sit down to plan my week.  I can see in advance what extra little items need taken care of and add them to my weekly plan.
  Maybe it's time to carve out a little time after work today to treat yourself to a cup of coffee and get your week in order.  You'll be amazed at how much of a difference these two tools will make.  I'm hoping that you use these simple strategies to streamline your days and make this your best week yet.  As always, I'm cheering for you!

~K.W.