9 things to put in your planner on Monday mornings for a productive AF week

It’s weird that Garfield hates Mondays, because as far as I’ve seen, he has literally nothing to do. For us humans, however, Monday is the start of another week of doctor’s appointments, grocery lists, and pesky phone calls to our insurance providers. It can all feel overwhelming, but there’s an easy way to fix it: planning. Not only are they fun to decorate, but planners give us the opportunity to organize our life into bite-size pieces through lists, schedules, and cute handwriting.

If the weight of the week ahead feels like too much, here are nine things you can plan on Monday morning so the next six days are productive AF.

1. Survey your entire week so you have a general idea of the rhythm coming up.

Make note of special events like dates, parties, birthdays, holidays, or days off from work or class. Keep in the back of your mind whatever it is that’s your motivator this week!

2. Go through last week’s to-do list and see what didn’t get accomplished.

Move anything that’s still relevant to your Monday to-do list. This is a technique stole from Bullet Journaling that’s super effective at making sure things don’t get lost in clutter.

3. Figure out a rough plan of dinners out vs. dinners at home.

Meal planning is a whole other beast entirely, but if you can plan your grocery shopping trips and loosely plan your dinners at home, you’ll never have to scrounge around for whatever is in the house to eat.

4. Put together a shopping list based on your meals at home. (Don’t forget weekend breakfasts, brunches and lunches!)

One big shop saves you SO MUCH time during the week.

5. Write down the forecast for each day.

Now you always know what you’re going to wear (and whether you need to do laundry).

6. Spread out phone calls, errands, and emails evenly across the week.

You might want to be optimistic and think you’ll get all your chores done in one afternoon. But be realistic: spreading them out means that no one day’s to-do list seems too long.

7. That being said, plan the annoying stuff first.

You’re not going to be productive if something is annoying hanging over your head. It’s science.

8. Make a daily budget.

This doesn’t have to be strict, but keeping a number in your head makes sure you stay on task.

9. Schedule in time to treat yourself every day.

Will it be yoga? Painting your nails? Calling your BFF? Watching the sunset? Reading a book? Whatever it is, make sure you do something every day that excited you — after all, work hard, play harder!