Ever since I was young Sunday has always been my ‘get your shit together’ day. When I was still in high school I always did my homework on Sundays. Back when I still had homework at university I also used to do those tasks or ‘homework’ on Sundays. Now that I am a bit older and am in charge of some homely tasks I like to ‘get my shit together’ again on Sundays. Over the past few years I have adapted my Sunday plans to start the new week off on good. This has helped me feel a lot less stressed, anxious and has really helped me feel less overwhelmed by all the tasks I have set to do do in my week ahead.

Sleep in

I love a good lie in, so on Sundays I like to sleep in for a little bit. If I have gone to bed early on Saturday I would usually wake up at around 9-ish. If I have had a bit of a late night because I binge-watched something on Netflix or had a party or anything like that, I like to sleep in a bit longer, which usually means I will sleep in until 10/10:30-ish.

Practice some self-care

One of the most important things for me is to plan in some self-care time on my Sunday. Some days I tend to do this in the evenings. Other days I pamper myself in the morning instead. Sometimes I put on a facemask, other weeks I give my body a good old scrub and sometimes I spend some extra time in bed because I’m reading a book. If I’m feeling extra bougie I would sometimes even bake something. This is rare though, as I often end up feeling a bit stressed from baking a cake.

Enjoy the outdoors

Sundays to me are the perfect day to go outside for a bit. Sometimes I can hole myself up inside of the house all weekend, especially if I am super busy with uni deadlines. On Sundays I always like to go outside for a bit. It doesn’t really matter what I do on a Sunday, as long as I just go outside and breathe in some fresh air. Some days I go for walks near the dunes or in our local forest and other days I meet friends or family for brunch or lunch and hop into town for a little bit. Spending my Sunday outside is another form of self-care to me as it makes me feel super calm and as if I have recharged my battery.

Update my calendar

Once I get home from a bit of time outdoors, I like to get behind my desk and get my bullet journal and monthly planner out. I usually have all the important info written down in my phone or on my monthly planner. On Sundays I like to put both of those next to my bullet journal to write down all the important events, deadlines and dates. In my bullet journal I have my weekly spread written down, which is basically my weekly diary. You can read more on how I use my bullet journal here.
I like to do this so I am already a bit aware of what I can expect of my week ahead. This helps me feel more in control of all the things I have to get done by the next week, so I don’t feel anxious or overwhelmed by how much I have to do on Monday.

Write my to-do list for Monday

After I have updated everything in my diary, I like to make a little to-do list for my Monday so I know where I have to start with work on Monday. Some Mondays this is uni related work, but most Mondays I like to use for taking photos or writing posts for the blog.
I only write down about four or five tasks down for the day. I know usually have bigger tasks planned for that day, e.g. write blog posts for Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This will take up most of my morning/afternoon, which means it takes up most of my day.

Create a meal plan for the week

I am a picky eater by choice. I can’t eat lots of meats because they tend to break me out and I have to avoid most food with dairy in it, because again it will break me out. My parents got so tired of me dismissing their dinner ideas, which is when we came up with the idea of me doing the meal plans. So every Sunday I like to sit down and look up some dinner recipes for us. We like to do our groceries day by day, which means we can always get the freshest produce. I like to browse on the internet for new recipes, and usually end up using Pinterest or recipes from a big Dutch supermarket that provides recipes. Once I have created our meal plan for Monday to Friday, I share it with my parents and then we all know what we’ll eat the upcoming five days.

Plan my outfits for the week

An hour before I go to bed I like to plan my outfits for my week ahead. I stopped planning my outfits for the week ahead about five years ago when I went to university. It felt like I had lots of time on my hands and could just pick outfits in the morning. Nowadays I like to be a bit more prepared, which is why I went back to planning my outfits on a Sunday evening. I prefer doing this, because it means I have an extra ten minutes in bed in the morning and I will never have that ‘Ugh I don’t know what to wear’ frenzy. I also prefer to do this especially on Mondays as I sometimes can really feel those Monday blues eating away at me. This way there’s one less thing to ‘feel blue’ about, i.e. my outfit will be nice, even on a Monday. So I don’t really have a reason to be unhappy with my outfit on a blue Monday morning.