my step-by-step weekend prep

One of the habits I started during quarantine (thanks to being home more and not traveling!) is something I like to call “weekend prep”, and now I pretty much can’t start a week without it! Since this has been such a helpful habit for me, I wanted to share what that process looks like for me and WHY it’s been so beneficial!

So one of the reasons I started this weekend prep was because so often I’d find myself in the middle of my week just feeling blindsighted by so many things. “Shoot I forgot I scheduled an appointment today. Totally didn’t know that deadline was tomorrow. Oh Michael is golfing this afternoon so I need to be with Shiloh,” etc. I felt very reactive to my week instead of proactive. We were also eating out way more often than we needed to simply because we didn’t plan ahead / have groceries at home to cook. Also…sometimes when I was on the fence about working out that day, I’d just choose to skip the workout because I didn’t have a plan in place of what type of workout to do that day, and I didn’t want to have think about it.

All that to say…I found myself feeling overwhelmed and a little lost in my weeks. Random meetings popping up I’d forget about, not knowing Michael’s schedule, missing deadlines, etc.

SO. Enter weekend prep.

My weekend prep routine

I typically do my weekend prep sunday afternoon (i’ll start it saturday and make sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed by sunday afternoon). Here’s what the process entails:

Step 1: I get out my golden coil planner and my iPhone (I put appointments / meetings / calls etc in my iPhone calendar). I write out all of my scheduled meetings and appointments for that week into my golden coil planner. That way, in one place I can see “i have a haircut on tuesday, call with xxx brand on wednesday, team zoom call on thursday, house meeting on friday” etc. I love being able to look at my week obligations all in one place.

Step 2: Next I pull up my work calendar (we use Trello to plan out my content, deadlines for campaigns etc) and I write out everything we need to shoot that week (ie: Lululemon Father’s Day post, Nordstrom summer dresses, my summer lake essentials) etc. We have a nanny 2 half days a week for Shiloh so that’s when I try and get all of my content shot. And if I don’t know ahead of time what I’m shooting, I’m scrambling during the week. So I list out everything we need to shoot that week into my planner, as well as other deadlines for campaigns.

Step 3: Once I have my week laid out, from here I plan out my workouts. [I customized a notebook from Golden Coil that has a section for workouts and a section for meal planning]. I do it this way because I’m able to see “Oh Michael and I could go to Equinox together this day” (before COVID…), based on what’s on my calendar. Or “Tuesday is really busy so I’ll need to workout first thing in the morning” or “my favorite class is happening on thursday at 9am so i need to sign up” etc. Planning out my workouts during quarantine has been much simpler because I’m doing all of them at home, unless I’m running outside. But regardless, I still like to have a plan! So i’ll plan out “Monday: 45min Peloton ride + 10min ab workout | Tuesday: Madeline Moves upper body workout | Wednesday: Run 5 miles + 15 min core workout” etc etc. I like going into the week with a plan for my workouts because I’m way more likely to follow through with them that way! I’m looking forward to starting to add back some gym workouts and workout classes too now that things are opening back up.

Step 4: Next I plan out our dinners for the week! (In the same customized notebook I mentioned above). When we were doing whole30, I planned out breakfast lunch and dinner. Now I just do dinners though! First I look at my planner i previously filled out to see what nights we have social plans (again, during COVID we had zero plans ha so this was easy) and then decide what nights we will cook at home vs get take out / eat out. I get out some of my favorite cookbooks or hop on pinterest to find recipes for the week, write them in my notebook, and then make my grocery list. I usually just pick out 2 or 3 recipes because we have leftovers the other nights, and then eat out one or two nights!

step 5: Once my grocery list is made, I do Whole Foods delivery through amazon prime and order what we need for the week! 9 times out of 10 I can get same day grocery delivery which is so nice. Ever since I started using grocery delivery a few months ago, I never want to go to the store again haha it is SO much easier!

This process might seem daunting to some of y’all but it has been SO helpful for me…and it’s honestly the most satisfying feeling to have it all done and go into the week with a game plan and goals in mind! My customized notebook I mentioned above also has a section for ‘goals’ in it…underneath where I write out my workouts. So this is also where I write certain goals for the week like “only have alcohol 2 nights this week. call xxx and go for a walk / catch it. read a book before bed” etc. I typically will just write out one or two goals like that for the week, but it’s always really helpful!

In addition to my ‘planner’ weekend prep…a few other things I like to do on that weekends that make me feel ready for the week:

wash and put away my laundry and shiloh’s laundry
clean up around the house and my office
take a rest day from working out
take a ‘rest’ from work – don’t pull my laptop out. just focus on family

Do you guys have a similar process you do to prepare for the week?! If you try out my weekend prep process, I’d love for you to tag me on your IG stories / let me know if it’s been helpful for you!

Thanks for reading!

While you will now start seeing some of my regular content again both on my blog and social channels, know that I do not take the world’s current events in fighting for racial justice lightly. It’s something myself and my family are fighting for, learning about, and growing in daily. For helpful resources or ideas on how we are giving back, check out this blog post.

xo Lauren