5 Ways to Organize Your Week (and Beat Procrastination)

I am a master of procrastination. If something needs to be done, I will find a way to distract myself and then curse myself at three in the morning trying to finish on a deadline.

When we decided to move to Vermont within a five-week timeline, procrastination wasn’t going to cut it. Not with two kids and all the intricacies of moving from one state to another – from utilities, health insurance, childcare, not to mention actually moving all our stuff. So I went back to basics and typed out a long list of all the things we had to get done before moving day, to keep a visual reminder for myself and keep me motivated to not put anything off and make a difficult process that much harder.

What worked for our moving process was actually something that I realize works for every part of your life. Planning. It’s planning that keeps you moving forward; on a timeline; keeps you from distraction. I know you’ve heard that saying, “Failing to plan is planning to fail,” right? (If you’ve ever had a personal trainer, then you’ve definitely heard it. It’s like our motto.) In any event, I’ve started incorporating more planning into my everyday life, to try to avoid the dreaded procrastination trap, so I thought I’d share 5 ways to organize your week to beat procrastination!

To-Do Lists

They’re old school and they work. Here’s the thing – just writing out every single thing you want to get done is probably going to overwhelm you. You can start with the list of everything, sure. Then look at deadlines – what needs to get done now? Are there specific dates you need to finish some tasks? Then you can start splitting it into smaller to-do lists and give yourself monthly, weekly and daily to-do lists.

The beauty of lists are that they satisfy a visual person – you can look at it, color-code it, draw on it if you want, then you get to cross out each item as you’re done – as well as being logical, time-driven tasks that appeal to a left-brain thinker.

Meal Planning

I’m not great at meal prep and I wish I was. Even if you’re like me and the thought of setting aside a couple of hours on a Sunday to boil eggs and cut vegetables is your idea of hell, meal planning is something that will help you and requires way less effort than you think. Whatever the meal you’re usually scrambling to prepare is (and I’m guessing for most people it’s dinner), just sit down on Friday or at some point on the weekend and pick recipes for each night of the upcoming week.

If you need inspiration, check out my healthy recipe board on Pinterest – I actually sit with Roman and scroll through this so he can tell me which ones he’d be likely to try.

Follow Fine Fit Day – Carly Pizzani’s board Healthy Recipes For Happy Bellies on Pinterest.

Then, once you have your recipes set, just read them, note what you need to buy and voilá, you have a shopping list and a plan for the week. Picking recipes for which you’ll have leftovers means less cooking nights, too! Bonus points for you if you feel like/have time for prepping any ingredients ahead of time, but honestly, just knowing exactly what you’re cooking and having the ingredients for it is a huge time saver.

Choose Your Clothes

Back when I had a job I actually had to wear real clothes for, this took up a lot of my morning – trying to figure out what I was going to wear. When your workwear is the same as your workout wear, picking outfits is way easier because everything seems to go so well together. (My husband was folding laundry the other night and he was holding up something in a neon orange. “Is that mine? Or Roman’s?” I asked him. He looked at me and said, “It’s neon. Of course it’s yours.” #neonmatchesneon)

The last time I had this problem was when I was pregnant with Baby T and got to that stage of pregnancy where all my regular clothes didn’t fit anymore and I would spend half an hour pulling stuff out and trying it on before finding something that worked. It wasn’t until I went through my entire closet, packed up everything that wasn’t going to fit for a loooong time and got out all my maternity gear that I realized how liberating it is to not have to think about what to wear on a daily basis.

If you can find time for a big closet clean-out, I highly recommend it. There is nothing like opening a drawer or a closet door, knowing that everything in it fits, works well together and makes you feel good. If you’re not able to do that, at the very least just think about what you’ve got coming up in the week in terms of work, exercise, fun stuff, then write down what you want to wear for each day and/or occasion. Again, having that physical list to refer to will be key to saving time and stress.

Snack Attack

This is its own separate category from meal planning, because getting snacks ready for your week ahead kills two birds with one stone. First, you’re less likely to cave on the cookie or the chocolate when you have your snacks ready and there for you. Second, in the event something happens where you might otherwise miss a meal (you sleep through your alarm, you have a work meeting that runs over) having snacks at hand can at least tide you over.

I may not meal prep, but I snack prep like a champion. Baggies of raisins and nuts, granola bars, single serve PB packs with apples, cut veggies with a tiny tupperware tub of hummus, yogurts – I have these ready to go for me and for the three year old in my life, so no-one gets unnecessarily grumpy.

Prioritize

What are the things you absolutely MUST get done in the upcoming week? Whether it’s a phone call you’ve been putting off because you know you’ll be on hold interminably, or getting your long run done before the weekend, whatever is your priority needs to come first. Figure out where it needs to happen on your to-do list, then stick to that. If it’s really something you’re dreading (for me that would be anytime I have to be on the phone with Verizon), then do it first thing Monday morning. I promise, getting it done before you even have time to procrastinate will make you feel so much better and makes your whole week that much easier.

Those are my tips on how to organize your week – what do you do? Give me your tips! I’m always trying to beat the procrastination monster. 😉