Georgina Lucy | 9 Jul 2017

How to have a good week

 

Do you ever have those weeks when you feel like you have really nailed life? Everything goes to plan, you have a perfect balance of work and play, you fit in exercise, manage to be keep on top of chores and life admin and your happiness levels are in good shape? Those weeks are amazing, but sadly they can be few and far between in these crazy times we live in.

Here are some practical and mindset related tips which help me navigate day-to-day life.

Plan, plan and plan some more

We all have various parts of our life to keep ‘afloat’ during the course of a week. For me it’s healthy eating, day job, exercise, life admin, blogging/coaching and social stuff. I have a lovely A4 weekly planner by Lollipop Designs which I keep in view on my kitchen table all week. I break it down by what I need to get done each day under various categories and tick off as I go. This keeps me on the straight and narrow – if it’s not written down, it will never happen.

Prioritise

If I was to sit and write down all the things I had to do I’d be here all day. There is always something that needs to be done. You will never get to the end of your to-do list. Work out what is urgent and what matters and ditch the rest. If you try to do everything, for everyone, in all areas of your life, all of the time, you’ll get swamped. What really needs to be done today? What can wait?

Avoid the perfectionism trap

I am terrible for this and it’s something I’ve recognised in myself over the last few years and now I know I have that tendency to fall into the trap I can pull myself up on it. “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” If we spent our lives perfecting every single little thing we did we’d never get anything done so cut yourself some slack. If that pillow case isn’t perfectly ironed will the world end?

Stop Catastrophizing

Things don’t always go to plan and we don’t always make the best choices. We reach for the chocolate when we’re tired, or we skip all the chores until they pile up and stress us out. As soon as we reach for that chocolate on a Tuesday evening we say to ourselves well that’s it, I’ve ruined the week now, may as well start again next week. Or when we get held up and are late we label it a bad day or one of those days which, before we know it, has become a bad week.

When one thing doesn’t work out, we then subconsciously look out for other stuff that’s going to go wrong and, hey presto, yet something else has turned into a drama. If something doesn’t go to plan, accept it and move on. Don’t let a bad moment become a bad day or a bad day become a bad week. It’s easy for this to happen but by recognising this, we can be tweak our thinking and move on without beating ourselves up over it.

Delegate

I am talking from a female’s perspective here (because I am one). As a woman I find myself doing a lot of the household stuff like cooking, laundry etc and on top of everything else it can sometimes get a bit much so I like to delegate and ‘out source’ as much as I can. If you live with someone else, share the load. Have defined jobs to share and areas of responsibility. My husband is great at taking the rubbish out and cleaning the kitchen after dinner! We decided to invest in a cleaner and no word of a lie, that £22 every fortnight has made a huge difference to day-to-day life. Not only is it the time I save but it’s one less thing that I tell myself I should be doing.

Schedule ‘me time’

‘You can’t pour from an empty cup’ and all that. This is very true and even when you feel there is no time at all for precious ‘me time’ in the course of week really think about where you can squeeze some in. Can you read or listen to a good book on your way to work? Go for a walk? Anything that allows you to switch off and connect to yourself. Schedule it in and it’s more likely to happen. Make a date with yourself, just as you would a friend. If you’re running yourself ragged you won’t be efficient and you will resent the other things that are filling up your time and that is not a recipe for a good week so don’t neglect self-care.

If you have any other tips for a productive and happy week let me know as I’m always looking for new ways of making simplifying day-to-day life so I can concentrate on the good stuff!

Georgina x

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