Are you a person who absolutely hates Mondays? I used to be that person too. But surprisingly, I love Mondays now.
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You may be thinking I’m crazy, but hear me out. In order to set yourself up for a successful and productive week, it’s important to create a good Sunday routine. If you’re ready to start being a Monday person too, keep on reading!
Change Your Mindset
The first step of your Sunday routine is to stop looking at Monday as a dreadful day.
I started looking forward to Mondays as a fresh start to the week. It’s almost like a mini version of that New Years’ feeling but it happens 52 times a year!
Listen, we all have bad weeks and sometimes it’s hard to transition from having a bad week to a good week. This is because we often let those negative feelings linger way too long and it affects our work, home life, and even our mental health.
An awesome exercise I like to do if I have a bad week is to write down 5 affirmations.
Related Post: 25 Positive Affirmations For Daily Motivation
For example, if I made a few mistakes at work and it’s really bugging me, I would write:
- I’m letting go of any self-doubt I feel right now
- Making mistakes is a part of growing and learning
- I’m capable of being successful
- I’m a hard worker
- This week I am going to redeem myself
If you’re not used to writing affirmations, it can seem silly or awkward at first but the empowerment you feel afterward is worth it.
If you can’t come up with any of your own affirmations, Pinterest has a ton for any situation you may be going through.
The whole idea is to change your attitude into something more positive, making the week ahead a little bit more bearable!
Plan Out Your Week
Next part of the Sunday routine!
Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent, content creator, work a 9-5 job, or maybe all above…you need a plan for your week. This plays a huge part in productivity.
I tried to be that girl who had all of her “to do’s” in her head. Can you guess what happened? Missed appointments, late to work, almost missed deadlines, and just a bunch of craziness that could have been avoided. Sigh.
Now every Sunday, I sit down and plan out my entire week.
Although, my personal planning strategy has taken a while to perfect into something that actually works for me. That being said, my strategy may not work for you but I will tell you about my two favorite planning tools so you can try them out!
A Physical Planner
If you’re new to planning, let’s start off simple – a planner. For a couple of years, all I needed was a simple hardcover planner to keep track of everything I needed to get done.
A couple of physical planners I recommend are:
- Erin Condren (What I currently use)
- Bloom Daily (An affordable option that I’ve used & love)
Trello – A Digital Planner
If you think you’d benefit the most from a digital planner, I highly recommend Trello. This is the planner I use for all of my blogging / social media tasks and it has increased my productivity a ton!
The best part is that Trello is free! There is a pro version like most things these days but you don’t need it.
I’ll do a more in-depth post about how I use Trello for my business but here’s a general idea of what mine looks like right now.
You can create different cards for each day of the week, insert your tasks for each day, go into detail for each task, and even schedule them if you have deadlines!
I never thought I’d be into digital planners but it has changed my productivity completely!
The Planning Strategy
So now that you have your planner, it’s time to plan smart. I used to jot down tasks in my planner in random order and always forgot something.
To avoid that, here’s a smarter way to plan out your tasks for the week.
- Start with work-related tasks. Work your way through the week, one day at a time.
- Next, family and personal tasks. (Appointments, activities, etc)
- Lastly, is the more random tasks such as cleaning, dinner, or whatever else you can think of that you need to get done!
I personally use an Erin Condren planner and Trello for all of my tasks each week. So experiment with one or both. Find what works best for you!
Focus On Self-Care
Let’s move on to my favorite part of my Sunday routine. Self-care!
After all of that soul searching and planning, it’s time to relax and prepare for the week ahead.
Self-care looks different for everyone so I’m going to tell you my favorite self-care activities for my Sunday routine and then I’ll list some others that you may be interested in!
Journal
I’m a big believer that you should write all of your thoughts down to release them from your mind. Whether that be negative or positive. Starting with a clear mindset is important.
Before journaling, I like to light a candle then cozy up on the couch with a blanket. Nice and relaxing!
When journaling, I recap the week that I had and just write about anything significant that happened. Then, I write about what I hope to accomplish the following week—followed by some affirmations of course!
Order In
Let me be honest, I used to really enjoy cooking but the apartment I’m in now has the tiniest kitchen and no counter space. This actually makes cooking meals a headache and not very relaxing.
So that is why I like to treat myself to ordering in on Sundays!
While eating my yummy food, I will catch up on any Hulu shows or find a new Netflix movie to enjoy.
Spa Night
This is my favorite part of my self-care routine!
Related Post: Amazing Skincare Tools That Have Transformed My Dry Skin
I start my spa night by doing my nails. By the end of the week, they’re always chipped and need some extra TLC. Sometimes, I’ll even take the extra time to do a dip powder manicure. My favorite brand is Revel Nail and their dip powders last for weeks!
Next, I’ll run myself a bubble bath. The bubble bath that I love right now is Dr. Teal’s foaming bath in Cannabis Sativa Hemp Seed Oil. It really helps relieve any stress and muscle tension. I’ll add some Epsom salts and a fun bath bomb too!
After my bath, I’ll focus on skincare. I have dry skin so I use a few tools to help with that. One is my favorite Vanity Planet Facial Steamer! This literally brings spa vibes to my Sunday routine.
Other Self-Care Activities
There are so many ways you can include self-care into your Sunday routine so here are some additional ideas!
- Take a walk
- Read a book
- Listen to a podcast
- Hang out with a friend
- Make your favorite dinner
- Drink water
- Exercise
- Treat yourself to dessert
- Buy a new item
- Take a nap
- Discover new music
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Have a good week!
Those are my main three tips on how to create a Sunday routine for a successful week!
Remember that you have to experiment and find what works best for you. I hope these tips help you have successful and productive weeks ahead!
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Amanda Burnett is a 25-year-old content creator. Growing up with a disability, she wanted to prove to herself that she was capable of accomplishing her dream life. Today she is helping her audience realize their potential as well! Her goal is to motivate as many people as she can through her lifestyle, beauty, and self-improvement content.
love all these suggestions! i love sundays for this very reason. it’s a great way to prepare for the week ahead. 🙂
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your post about a Sunday routine! I never knew I needed one until now 😉 And I already have quite a mindful take on life! The thing I appreciated most about this post was the suggestion to plan for the week ahead because that might be the very thing most of us are dreading on a Monday morning. It totally makes sense as well: if we plan on Sunday, we can have a good night’s sleep to process whatever is ahead of us. Consecutively, this makes the heap of tasks feel more accomplishable, I think. I also loved your take on starting a new week as comparing it to a new year – a blank canvas, times 52 🙂 Wonderful post and wonderful insights. Love, Susanne
Excellent article! And I absolutely LOVE that you put “Change your mindset” first! Monday doesn’t have to be a terrible day and sometimes we forget that it’s the beginning of new possibilities. Thanks for the reminder!
Amanda, great tips! So much better than waking up on Monday in a frenzy to figure out the week.
I really enjoyed reading this 💓 I actually really love Monday’s – it’s Tuesday’s that I dread 🤷♀️ Writing a to do list for the upcoming week is literally one of my favourite things to do on a Sunday evening and really helps me delegate which days to do what. Self care is a MUST – love a good podcast to listen to whilst painting 🙂 x
Love all of these! Sunday’s are the best to treat yourself to a self care day and prepare for the week. Changing your mindset and getting in the right headspace can help so much!
Some really lovely tips here! I love to get planning on a Sunday – Trello is the perfect way for that like you said x
I love this post! I need to get a better Sunday routine as I’m very unproductive before I go back to work! Thank you for sharing these tips, I will definitely put some of these ideas in place x
This is so important thanks for sharing really needed it! Definitely have to start planning out my week!
I really enjoyed reading this and all the tips! I think that most of all what I need to add to my routine are changing my mindset and treat Monday as a new beginning|! It’s such a useful idea as I usually bring over whatever I didn’t manage to do which doesn’t help! Also planning the week ahead is such a great help and taking time to treat yourself too! Thanks for sharing x
Such great advice about making self-care be apart of that routine. I don’t do that …ever! I’m always running on empty because of it, which then sets the whole week off bad…thank you so much for this reminder!
Self-care is so important! I hope you got some good ideas for your next self-care day! 🙂
It’s a great idea to reset on Sunday and figure out what your priorities and goals are for the week. I will try to be better at this. Lately, I’ve been trying to set up my expectations for the next day each night but looking a week out is also beneficial for productivity.
I’m going to try to remember to reread this on Sunday! Good suggestions.
I absolutely love this post and it is relevant to me as I used to dread Mondays. It really does start with mindset and something I have done to ease into the week is avoid scheduling any meetings on Mondays. That helps me mentally get back into the work week so by Tuesday I am thawed and ready for the work chaos that awaits. Thanks for sharing this wonderful article!
Hi Nancy, I’m so glad you enjoyed my post! It’s totally smart to take it easier on Mondays and not schedule any meetings!
Such lovely ideas! Sundays can be stressful so self-care is important. I just started using a planner and I love the Happy Planner. I use the teacher version for lesson planning at work so it was an easy transition to their life planner and I can use the accessories interchangeably. 🙂
I’m definitely one of those people that dreads Monday. A mindset shift is absolutely the first and most important step for me. I also find planning out my week, is essential. Thank you so much for these tips! I’m already starting to look forward to Monday!
This is such a wonderful post! I agree that creating a Sunday routine can really make the rest of week more productive and prepare you for the week. Love these ideas! I like to plan early instead of Monday mornings as well ☺️
This is such a ‘me’ post! I use my Sunday to plan ahead and get a few chores done so the week ahead is that much more restful. But also I make sure to carve out time for some self-care. I hate when the weekend seems to be disappearing and I know I’ve not properly invested in myself. Whether it’s a bubble bath or working on my blog I try to do something for me. And then the rest can be doing laundry or meal planning or something.
Love this post! It’s a great way to ensure your Monday is the best start to a week it can be! I’ve heard of Trello through a teacher friend so will check that out!
Daisy xoxo | AccordingToDaisy
Yes yes and yes to everything! I am a huge fan of routines and rituals, every Sunday night I have a bubble bath and a date night with my bf and it has become my favorite day of the week, and I used to dread Sunday afternoons! Thanks for sharing xx
Sundays are my self care days too! So important for a smooth start into the week ahead. Thanks so much for putting this together 😉
Love these ideas!
I absolutely love your affirmations! It’s so important to use Sundays to rest, recharge and reset for the work week ahead. Your suggestions are on point. Thank you so much for sharing!
I, too, am lost without my planner. I love your ideas here and already do several of these things! Thanks for sharing and giving me some new ideas!
I love these ideas and I think it’s important to schedule both self-care and organisation on a Sunday! I love a Sunday for that exact reason haha x
Great read! Useful and easy to do tips. Will try some and see how it goes.
really enjoyed reading this! love having sundays to just regroup before the new week begins. i love all your suggestions here and will keep them in mind for my own sunday routines. thanks for sharing, amanda!
Wonderful list Amanda! I love the part about changing your mindset! I have gotten myself to look forward to Mondays too!! Thanks so much for sharing!✨
Thank you, Elizabeth! So glad you enjoyed this post.
Great suggestions! I hate Mondays too, so any ways to improve the start of the week are cool.