Do you constantly feel like you’re limping through the workweek? Use your weekend to set up your week for success and limp no more!
Weekdays are hard. On everyone, but maybe most especially on working moms. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. When you’re trying to be the best mom, the best employee, the best spouse, the best daughter, the best pet owner, the best homemaker, and the best you, it’s easy to feel run ragged.
Although most of us never truly feel like we are off duty in any of these roles, the weekends do tend to give us a bit more wiggle room, if nothing else. Sure, you’re still spread too thin (thank you, kids’ sports!), but you have an opportunity to ask (and answer) the Lazy Genius’ magic question: “What can I do now to make something easier later?”
The magic question is truly my favorite of the Lazy Genius principles detailed in The Lazy Genius Way. I look for ways I can help my future self at every turn, so it’s no wonder I’ve turned my weekends into magic question sessions. And I’m so glad I have! My weeks go so much smoother when I’m able to devote a little time on the weekend to helping myself get through the week.
Here is what I do every weekend to give myself a little better chance at smooth sailing. Take what resonates with you and add these tasks to your weekend to set up your week for success!
How to Set Up Your Week for Success
Calendar
My first task every weekend is to consult my calendar. It is my most crucial weekend task, and I highly recommend that you are super familiar with your calendar if you want to set up your week for success too.
Now, I have a whole system to organize my busy family, which might or might not be helpful to you. At a minimum, I suggest keeping a calendar (either paper or digital) and communicating the week’s activities to the rest of your family. I keep a paper calendar on my desk where I write everything from work schedules to doctor’s appointments to kid activities to trash day. If it isn’t in my big paper calendar, it isn’t happening.
From my paper calendar, I take the most important things and add them to a weekly dry erase calendar that hangs on the wall in our mudroom. It’s the last thing we see as we leave the house, so we have no excuse (except the kids, who can’t yet read). If the fridge or some other location in your house works better for you, put your dry erase calendar there, but I highly recommend that you get one if you want to set your week up for success.
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with what’s going on during the upcoming week, you can make a list of what you need to do and when you need to do it. Does your kid have a birthday party to attend next Saturday? Add purchasing a gift to your list. Do you have a free evening without kids’ sports? Schedule in a yoga class. When you know what you need to do, it’s so much more manageable to get it done.
Chat
After I consult my calendar, my next task to sit down and have a chat with my spouse about the week ahead. We chat about the week ahead and divvy up responsibilities for tackling items on our family to-do list. This chat accomplishes so many purposes. First, it ensures that nothing is falling through the cracks. Second, it ensures that my spouse and I share responsibility for family obligations fairly. And third, it gives my spouse and me a guaranteed point of connection every single week so we aren’t just ships passing in the night.
If you’ve read the book Fair Play by Eve Rodsky, this chat will feel very familiar. We don’t deal cards like the book suggests, but we have found that the chat is all we need. If you want to set up your week for success, I highly recommend setting aside some time on the weekend to chat with your spouse/partner about the week ahead.
Meal prep
I’m pretty passionate about meal prep. I even have a 6-step meal prep plan. Maybe it’s the Type A perfectionist in me, but I feel completely unmoored when I don’t have a meal plan.
That’s especially true on weeknights when my spouse and I work and we have evening activities to contend with. I need to feel confident that I have a plan to feed my family that fits with our day. I also need to make sure I’m getting the correct meat out of the freezer or picking up a fresh vegetable or loaf of bread so I’m not scrambling as I transition from work me to mom me.
In addition to making a meal plan on the weekend, I also lump a few other food-related weekend tasks that set up your week for success in this category.
Clean the fridge
You don’t want to realize that six weeks have gone by between cleaning out your vegetable drawer. It’s enough to make you gag. I like to clean the fridge right before I head to the grocery store so I can easily add the groceries I’ve bought at the store without frustration.
Grocery run
After you’ve got your meal plan made, you need to go to the grocery store and get the food you need to execute it. If you like to physically walk the aisles of the grocery store like I do, the weekend is probably your best bet. If you prefer to pick up your groceries curbside or get them delivered, you have a lot more flexibility. I still recommend scheduling your acquisition of groceries for the weekend to set up your week for success.
Wash fruits & veggies
Unfortunately, if you really want to set up your week for success, your food-related work isn’t done once you bring your groceries home. If you have any fresh produce, I highly recommend washing it immediately so it’s easier to use throughout the week. Those strawberries will be way less likely to get moldy halfway through the week if they’re washed, trimmed, and ready to pop in your mouth whenever you need a snack.
Laundry
Now, I’m a one-load-a-day lady when it comes to laundry, so you won’t find me advocating that you set up your week for success by doing all the laundry in your house on the weekend. That couldn’t be farther from my laundry philosophy. I do, however, suggest that you not take a break from the one-load-a-day concept on the weekends. If you’ll be home long enough to wash, dry, fold, and put away one load of laundry, do it. Your weekday self will be so glad you didn’t take a break from laundry over the weekend.
Weather
I grew up in a weather-obsessed house. My mother spends more time checking the weather than on just about anything else, and it has rubbed off on me over my nearly four decades of experience with her. I also grew up in a place known for its extreme weather events (hurricanes), so knowing the weather gives me comfort that today isn’t the day I’m going to die in a flood. Now that you know my weather background, you shouldn’t be surprised that I take some time every weekend to check the weather for the week and plan accordingly.
How do I plan once I know the weather? The weather really helps me to manage expectations when it comes to activities and the clothes we will need for the week. Sure, I have a mom uniform, but the precise weather helps me to refine it for the week ahead. If you want to set up your week for success, get yourself a weather app and check it on the weekends. I like AccuWeather, but you do you.
Everything shower
I don’t even know why I’m adding this to my list of things to do to set up your week for success because every woman I know (mom or not) takes an everything shower over the weekend. If you’re perhaps an alien who has just landed on planet Earth, an everything shower is a shower in which you do all that needs doing. You wash your hair, shave your legs, maybe you go wild and exfoliate. You do the extra things that you don’t have time to do in your daily showers. I don’t need to remind you to take an everything shower over the weekend, but here I am, so consider yourself reminded.
Tidy
I have small kids, so my house looks like a tornado came through it by Friday night. There are toys everywhere, there are piles of school projects and mail on the kitchen counter, and the trash is in serious need of being taken out. My house is usually in such a state, that I don’t feel like I can really enjoy the weekend until I’ve taken some time to get my house back in order.
Now, I’m not suggesting that I spend hours on end decluttering every room and making sure that every item in my house is in its perfect place every weekend. Not at all. I just want a clear counter and a path to walk from room to room. My standards are low. But they’re there and I highly recommend that you take 10-15 minutes to set up your week for success by tidying up your house on the weekend.
Digital organization
Oh man does our digital life get out of control during the work week! We get emails every 2.5 seconds, we take approximately 62 pictures a day, and our list of missed calls from Suspected Spam is in the double (or triple!) digits. If you’re anything like me, you let the digital aspects of your life get out of hand during the week. If you don’t take some time during the weekend to go through all the digital stuff you’ve accumulated during the week, it’s easy to drown in it. And fast.
To set myself up for success, I take some time on the weekend (usually when I’m doing something else like watching a TV show or sitting on the bleachers at baseball practice) to organize my digital life. I’ll clean up my emails, go through and delete pictures I never want to see again, and clear out my voicemail box. It just feels good, and it’s a great way to set up your week for success where your phone is concerned anyway.
Family time
I know that my list of things to do on the weekend to set up your week for success has thus far been heavy on the tasks and to-dos. But I’m not a slave to my to-do list on the weekend and you shouldn’t be either. It is so important that you devote a big chunk of your weekend to family time.
I don’t know about you, but I got married and had kids to spend time with them. It’s so easy in our over-scheduled lives to forget that. So, take your weekends and carve out some devoted time. Head to the park, play a game, or even eat a meal together. It doesn’t have to be fancy to count.
Me time
Did I save the best for last on this list? I’d like to think I did. Many of you probably don’t get a whole lot of me time during the week. Between going to work, chauffeuring your kids hither and yon, and being a short-order cook, you can barely find time to go the bathroom Monday through Friday. And although I’m not suggesting that the weekend affords you tremendous amounts of time to devote to yourself, I do think it’s important to make sure you have some me time each weekend to set your week up for success.
Your me time is going to look different from the next gal’s me time. For me, my weekend time for myself usually looks like a 30-minute yoga session during quiet time, an early bedtime, or a walk with the dog while listening to an audiobook. It’s not grandiose, but it’s enough to recharge my battery and make sure I’m not behind the eight ball as I start a new week.
Other posts
Are you looking for other content that might help you get into your mom groove? You might want to check out these posts:
I hope you’re able to set up your week for success with these tips for things to do during the weekend. What do you prioritize on the weekend? Please share down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason.
Love this Ms Sara!