As my self care routine evolved, I gained a newfound love for Sundays, which is now my favorite day of the week (obviously, Fridays are also my favorite but I wouldn’t be unique here if I wrote a post about Fridays). Instead of having a lazy Sunday, I decided to turn this day into a personal productive day to combat Sunday Scaries and get super prepared for the upcoming work week. I’m obsessed with this routine and like my self care routine, I don’t know how I lived without this! My Sundays look a little something like this:
Breakfast (or brunch): Every morning (or afternoon, depending on how late I decide to sleep in), I make an elaborate breakfast. I will either cook eggs with avocado and bacon or blueberry pancakes with bacon OR I will go all out and make eggs, pancakes and bacon. I will pair this breakfast with a delicious cup of coffee from my French press (I pulled this out of the cabinet recently and fell in love with it all over again). After indulging myself, I will relax by watching TV with Jesse, either catching up on Saturday Night Live or watching Youtube videos.
Cleaning + Organizing: Once I’m done relaxing, I will roll up my sleeves, put on a good playlist from Spotify and start cleaning! This is my favorite part of my Sunday because of how clean and beautiful our apartment looks afterwards. Since I clean every Sunday, a lot of times I will just wipe down the counters and put everything in its place that might have been misplaced throughout the week, especially clothes that pile up on my clothes rack. Once in a while, I will do a deep clean which will consist of vacuuming (I delegate this to Jesse), swiffering (also Jesse), and cleaning the tub.
Some Sundays I try to incorporate organizing a space in the apartment that hasn’t been touched in awhile. This Sunday, I tackled the shoes in my closet. It was a hot mess and super dusty. Now they’re laid out neatly so I can stop telling myself I don’t have any shoes to wear 🙂
Relaxation #2: Once I’m done cleaning, which takes about an hour, I will take another moment to relax. That may include watching more TV, youtube videos on my phone or going to the gym (when I go to the gym on a Sunday, I feel like superwoman doing all the things!).
Meal prep: Sundays are usually the days where we like to cook a big dinner together because we have more time and we also take this time to meal prep. Meal prep for us is pretty easy because we will eat salads for lunch (we eat the same thing to limit the amount of decision making here) and will make enough dinner on Sunday to have leftovers for a couple of days. Meal prepping has saved us a lot of money because we don’t buy lunch or dinner (unless we want to treat ourselves) and time because there are days we don’t have to cook dinner or take time to figure out what we’re eating for lunch.
Self care routine: After dinner, I like to go into my self care routine (minus the organization part because I did that in the beginning of the day). On days where I clean the tub, I like to treat myself to a bath using lavender bath soap. I will play my “Quiet Hours” playlist and read a book. Right now, I am reading two books: Morning Star by Pierce Brown and Becoming by Michelle Obama (these are two completely different books, so it depends on what mood I am in). Like I said in my self care routine post, when I get out of the bathroom I feel extremely relaxed.
Work week prep: Before the night is completely over, I will prep for the work week. This includes writing down my weekly goals in my planner, mapping out my to do list by using a time blocking method, and checking my work calendar to see what are important meetings I am leading that I need to do additional prep for. I will also add in personal activities to my personal calendar like blocking off time for writing, reading or social events. When I’m done with my planner and calendar, I will pick out my clothes for the WHOLE week (yes, I am THAT person). The outfits I pick out for the week depends on how many meetings I have and what the weather will be like. Picking out my clothes for the entire week minimizes the amount of decisions I have to make in the morning. Instead of staring into my closet, I pick my clothes off my clothes rack and walk out the door. Of course sometimes I’m not in the mood to wear certain clothing, so I do allow myself flexibility to change. But, that thought occurs as soon as I wake up the next day so when I do get dressed I already have an alternative picked out.
Final relaxation: My last relaxation for the day will include even more TV time or reading a book before bed. This helps me unwind one last time before bedtime so that all my thoughts are clear and I feel prepared to take on the work week.
As you can see throughout my Sunday, I carefully make sure there is a nice balance between getting things done and relaxation. My goal every Sunday is to get to my final relaxation by 8 or 9PM when our Sunday shows start. We are currently loving Crashing and High Maintenance on HBO – at this point we’re just waiting for Game of Thrones to come back! I love how my Sundays make me feel really prepared for the rest of the week; minimizing the amount of decisions I need to make for the week. Even if anything does come up that I haven’t originally planned, I know my schedule enough to maintain a level of flexibility and still get my weekly goals accomplished.