Weekly Planning for the Weary Mom

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Once upon a time, I was able to keep up with my entire schedule for months in advance in my head.  I could remember birthdays, anniversaries, deadlines, and vacation schedules without having to write any of it down.  Ever since having kids, though, the ever-intrusive “pregnancy brain” took up residence and never moved out.  I need a game plan to accomplish much of anything in my weekly planning and in my life with my kids in tow.

Though I am not an organization expert, these are some of my strategies for weekly planning.

WEEKLY PLANNING

Prioritize

What is most important in my week?  I reverse engineer my weeks as much as possible to figure out what I want to make time for.   Plug it into your calendar, whether it is a paper planner (my favorite) or your calendar on your phone.   I’m learning to say no more often, even to good things.  (this podcast is a great listen- it’s directed toward businesses, but the principles are the same for home)

Meal Planning

This has saved me hours of my week along with money.  I tend to lay out a general plan of meals for the week and go grocery shopping once or twice a week.  Even if I don’t stick to the plan the whole week, my weekly planning ensures I’m prepared to make something every night and takes the weight off of figuring out dinner.  I have Pinterest boards that collect any online recipes I have for the month in one place so I can find them quickly.   Otherwise, I have a small white board on my refrigerator that I can write out our meal plan and where to find the recipe.

Weekly Rhythms

One thing I have learned since having kids is that our whole family works best on regular routines and rhythms.  I have started to create a weekly rhythm for keeping up with the cleaning and care of our household.  I like to have a specific day each week to go to the grocery store as well.  The procrastinator in me wants to put off all the responsibilities until one day a week, but our household runs so much smoother when I am consistent with these rhythms.  The consistent rhythms are comfortable once established and help everyone know what to expect.

Sunday Overview

This is a new one for this year, and I am honestly not implementing it very well yet.  In an ideal world, each Sunday I would sit down with a cup of coffee, my computer, and my planner to evaluate what is coming for the week.   If I see that we have someone coming over for dinner on Friday, I can block off some quiet time earlier in the week for the introverts in our family.  This also gives me an opportunity to get my husband and I both on the same page about what is happening each week.

Give yourself grace

All of this is my ideal world where everything would function smoothly and life would go according to plan.  The goal of my weekly organizing is to help our family thrive and to smooth out as many rough patches as I can in advance, but the organization can always take a back seat to whatever is going on in life.  Sometimes one of my kids gets sick.  Sometimes a friend has a really rough day and needs some company or encouragement.  In any case, there is grace to stray from the plan as I work through life.  Keep moving, give it another try next week, and find a sparkle of joy in the chaos.

What are your weekly planning strategies?

2 COMMENTS

  1. These are great tips! I’ve come to love my Sunday planning times and tend to get a little cranky when I get interrupted. Im curious what your quiet time for introverted family involves though

    • Now that it’s getting nicer outside, we like to take some time together as a family either out in the backyard playing or up in the east mountains hiking around on one of the trails up there. For my daughter and I (the introverts), it’s some great time doing things together while also refreshing us. We’re able to engage the whole family in an activity, but it’s not necessarily all conversation time. Even having a movie night or doing some watercolor painting together when it’s cold outside is rejuvenating to everyone. I think the main thing for us is to block off at least an evening or two each week that we’re not inviting people over. We love to host people, but it can be exhausting for the introverts 🙂

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