My Sunday PM Rituals to Ensure a Creative Week Ahead

I was never good at Sundays. And definitely not good at Sunday nights. When I used to work in corporate and have a 9-5, Sundays were my least favorite day. I’d be anxious, and dreading the early rise and grind that was looming for the week ahead. Now, I’m not necessarily any better per say–but I have discovered a little ritual I like to do on Sundays to help me be my best creative self come Monday morning.

Okay so this definitely isn’t breakthrough. Let me just say that up front. And it’s not some magic little trick that takes two seconds and then bam you feel great and your worries are gone–but it does help.

Here we go

I start by making time. Making time can be super hard especially on weekends when everyone is home, and it feels like the to-do list is miles long already. But it’s so important to make time for this little activity. I carve out about an 1-2 hours to sit down, and focus. And don’t be intimidated–I sometimes do this while Jackson and I watch TV on the sofa on a Sunday afternoon.

I open a blank page. I use the Golden Coil planner and have a preset page for project planning. You can use something pre-designed or an ordinary literal blank page is perfectly fine.

I write my dream to-do list. This just helps to get the juices flowing. I jot down my dream to-do list for the week ahead when it comes to creative projects. Everything and anything that comes to mind, I write it down. It doesn’t matter if it feels out of scope or too small / too big–I write it down. The goal is to understand that even if it might not physically be possible to do all these things in one week–what does your “dream” productivity rate look like?

Then I break it down. I start making subtasks, jotting down notes for the projects I’m finding myself drawn to. I start ranking them or prioritizing them by my interest level (not by what needs to get done, but what am I excited to do?) I sketch out ideas, pull inspo photos, rip out pages of magazines and stick them to my idea list. This helps things feel more real, tangible and visual.

Then I put it on my calendar. This might seem aggressive. But I literally take those tasks and put them on my daily calendar. I try to sprinkle them throughout my week–making them fit. I find by this point, I’m really excited about all of them so it doesn’t feel like a “to-do”. If something doesn’t make it onto my weekly calendar, it didn’t make the cut and that’s okay. I go by what I’m most excited by, drawn to, and what feels most organically purposeful at that given moment.

Then I leave. I go about my day–cook dinner, head out to a movie–whatever is on the Sunday PM docket. This allows me to have some “space” from that list. I don’t really abide by firm “cuttofs” for creative work, so if I want to keep going I will, but I find that stopping and taking some breathing room actually helps me feel more excited to rush out of bed on Monday to start.

It feels so good to wake up on Monday with a strong purpose, as opposed to a laundry list or loose ideas floating around my brain making me anxious, like god I need to do that, or man that would be a cool idea and then Monday comes and whoosh–those ideas are gone.