So far the weekend is feeling much better than the craziness of last week. I had a nice day yesterday, spending the morning with my parents, then some housework/ work in the afternoon and finally in the evening, a big milestone….
Asher had his first “swim meet” since February! (I put quotes because it wasn’t an official meet, but it ran like a meet and was against another local team in an outdoor pool. The number of kids was limited, the times weren’t official and they don’t actually “count” for their swim records. Basically it was a mock meet, but the kids had fun racing anyway.)
He normally has swim meets 1-3 times a month, so 6 months without any has been weird. I have no idea when there will be another one, but it was nice to see him back out there.
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| The parents had to watch from a distance, outside the pool gates. We all sat on blankets 6+ feet apart. |
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| Asher is the little guy up on the blocks in the white cap, ready to dive in to swim a relay leg. |
Weekly Review:
In other news, on Friday afternoon I took a little time and attempted my first ever official “weekly review” of my life.
This is a concept that I’ve heard a lot about from Sarah Hart-Unger on her blog and now on her new planning related podcast called “Best Laid Plans.” In one of her first episodes, she outlines this weekly process she goes through to help organize and plan her upcoming week. It sounded quite brilliant and made me realize that perhaps taking a bit more intentional approach to planning my weeks might help avoid some common pitfalls that often later mess up my weeks!
It really doesn’t have to be any big deal or take too much time, and it’s totally customizable. I listened to her podcast last week and took some notes and decided to give it a try this week!
If you’re interested, here are the basic steps I wrote down. She recommends doing it Friday afternoon, or maybe over the weekend some time- whenever you want, but just so that you’re ready to go come Monday morning.
1. Review ongoing project lists (home, work, personal), monthly goals and upcoming calendar.
2. Migrate/ eliminate prior week’s tasks.
3. Add new items from monthly list/projects.
4. Empty physical inboxes (mail, sort papers, etc.)
5. Empty virtual inboxes (work, personal emails)
6. Make meal plan + shopping list for next week, schedule planned workouts on calendar.
7. Review plan with family/spouse as needed to make sure everyone knows what everyone else has coming up (and identify any conflicts!).
I’ve only completed steps 1, 2, 3 and 5 so far. I’m planning to deal with physical papers + steps 6 and 7 today. I really liked the concept of have a dedicated time to address all of this stuff, instead of just randomly checking in on my to do list whenever it pops into my mind. It made it feel much more effective and productive and helped me to really think through my upcoming week more systematically.
I keep a bunch of categorized to do lists running in Google Tasks, so I pulled those up and sorted through them/added stuff and also moved priority items to my “Do This Week” list (which is where I pull my daily tasks from).
I also made sure (in step 1) that any kids’ activities, appointments and work meetings were clearly and accurately updated on my calendar as well. It was a good chance to review my monthly goals and make sure I’m remembering to address those in my week too.
The best part- my email inbox is now down to 11 from the 200+ that had accumulated! Yes!
All in all, I really enjoyed the process and I think I’m going to keep scheduling that in on Friday afternoon! If you like this kind of stuff, check out episode 2 of Best Laid Plans for full details on Sarah’s system. 🙂
Daily Gratitude:
I’m grateful for beautiful weather for the socially distanced swim meet last night, AND the fact that there were no mosquitoes out there!! I thought we might get eaten alive sitting out in the grass at dusk, but nope! Thank goodness. 🙂
I’m grateful for beautiful weather for the socially distanced swim meet last night, AND the fact that there were no mosquitoes out there!! I thought we might get eaten alive sitting out in the grass at dusk, but nope! Thank goodness. 🙂
GRATEFUL KAE 
glad to see that you are feeling better! and Yay for swim meet, he must be so happy to get back to it. I got a journal yesterday after seeing sarah's journal layout! I haven't done a weekly review but will do this morning (Monday) to start the week feeling planned! We are also having good weather here in Manila, cool (26C in the morning) and raining few times a day which keep the air fresh and clean! I loved running under the rain.
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I want to incorporate a weekly review process, too. But haven't quite gotten to the point of figuring out what my system should look like. But by the fall I'd like to have a systematic review to do at the end of every week!
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