Pop quiz time: What do you do when you’re in the middle of a horrible, no good, very bad
week?
A: Stay in your pajamas all week and complain to everyone who’ll listen
B: Hope like all get out that next week’s better
C: Change something on purpose to make SURE next week’s better
I bet you know which one’s the right answer – C.
But it’s awfully hard to determine what that concrete make-it-better action ought to be, which is why I’ve made you a free download to figure out what that change should be, for your week!
Scroll down for your free Calendar Sanity Checklist, as well as a quick “don’t do this” checklist for your weekly planning sessions.
Change something now
First up, here’s mistake number one: Deciding that it’s going to be this way forever (or at least till you get more sleep), and just slogging through it. You have to make changes to get a happier life!
All right, all right, you’re convinced. But how do you know what needs to go? (Get added? Dropped? ….) That’s where Your Calendar Sanity Checklist comes in. IT doesn’t know; YOU do.
So I designed a set of questions that’ll take you through your horrible, no-good week – and not so coincidentally along the way, uncover exactly what needs changing to fix it.
Now, I know that figuring out what to change is crucial. But that takes energy, and sometimes we just don’t have it. Which is why I made you a cheat sheet so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel (on five hours of sleep) every other week!
Don’t get crazy optimistic
And here’s mistake number two: Choosing an overly optimistic (aka, crazy productive) view of your week, and loading up your to-do list accordingly.
Don’t forget to add all those complicated-but-tasty Pinterest recipes to your menu, too! (Can you say, recipe for disaster?)
See, we keep forgetting that we’re real humans. And thinking that adding a few must-try recipes, or an extra outing or two, will be no sweat – or at least, able to be worked in.
It’s okay, we’ve got it, we’ll handle it – that’s the attitude mom culture wants us to have. Rather than “I need a break right now since work is so crazy, so I’m going to simplify anything and everything that isn’t it.”
Or “my mental balancing act can’t take much more – one more thing and I’m going to forget the groceries!” And you prescribe freezer meals, frozen pizza, and those 50 cents apiece burritos from the freezer aisle until you’re out of the crazy stretch.
You have to make changes to get a happier life.
Basically, you’ve got to recognize when you’re in a tough spot, prioritize taking care of yourself, and do whatever it takes to get back on an even keel.
Schedule in that evaluation time
Now for mistake number three. So, you’ve finally decided to go simple. You’re not going to leave things the way they are, but neither are you going to embark on some ambitious productivity overhaul of your life while you’re nursing.
Great – but have you forgotten this last key thing? You MUST evaluate each week – just a tiny bit – to find out what to do better next week. (And no, not in a “exercise 10 minutes longer a day” type of way.)
We’re after useful change here – things like “move bathroom scrubbing to post-lunch when I’ve got that burst of pre-nap energy” and “give myself five more minutes to get the kids to the van before the doctor’s appointment.”
Not pie-in-the-sky, if-I-was-a-mythically-productive-mom “do better” tweaks.
Real, practical, this-is-how-my-life-works stuff.
Case in point: Just this week, my “notes to self” included “move weekly prep to Thursday afternoon ‘cause it goes a lot faster than on Friday morning.”
Don’t know why, doesn’t matter – I’m moving it to where it works for me. I don’t have to know the energy-reason behind the why.
Just do it.
So now that you know the why behind that “always evaluate your week” advice, what do you need to do?
What I’d suggest: Use Your Calendar Sanity Checklist as the foundation for a new rhythm. Each week, at a time and day that works for you, go through your week.
See what worked, and what didn’t. Make those notes to self – and then transfer them to your calendar or planner so they actually get done.
In other words, see change. And make it happen.
So here you go: download your reset. And may your horrible, no-good weeks slip away in the rearview mirror, never to return with that same intensity.
Go forward into a better, lighter future – a non-fairytale version of an ideal #momlife – because it’s YOURS. Tailored to YOU. To your family’s needs.
It’s all here, waiting for you.
When are you going to start your easy eval process today?
