A little while ago, I started implementing a weekly reset into my routine. It had such a big impact on my life that it’s now become a habit for me, and whenever I don’t do it, I feel a little lost & disorganised. This routine is something I do every Sunday afternoon or evening. I set a little time aside, to organise my life & check-in on myself and my goals, in order to always start the new week feeling my best.
I split this reset ritual into 3 different sections: clear, review, and plan. Clear includes clearing my digital, physical, and mental space, review involves taking stock of the last week, and plan is when I plan my schedule & goals for the upcoming one.
In this blogpost, I’ve included a step-by-step breakdown of how I go about my weekly reset routine, as well as free printables for you to do your own reset!
CLEAR
1. Clean Desktop & Downloads File
My desktop and downloads file are both high traffic places for me. I’m always downloading various graphics I’ve made for the blog or my youtube videos, and my desktop can turn into a bit of dumping ground. I always feel much better when I have a clear digital space, so I try to give both areas a good clean at the end of each week. This makes it way easier to keep on top of, and I find I don’t have to commit to such an intense digital declutter every month or so.
If you are in need of a deep digital declutter, I’ve written a blogpost which will take you through the process step-by-step & includes a free checklist.
2. Clear Out Google Keep
Google Keep is my preferred note-keeping app. As such, it’s another place that can fill up very quickly. By the end of the week, I find random reminders and shopping lists that I definitely don’t need anymore. I take a couple of minutes deleting anything I no longer need and organising any new notes into folders. This way I can find things more efficiently during the week.
3. Tidy & Clean My Space
Once my digital space is clean, I like to do the same for my physical space. I use this time to pop on a fresh load of laundry, tidy away anything in my room that’s out of place, and give it a quick once over with the vacuum and a duster. Once that’s done, I light a candle and crack out my notebook for the Review and Plan segments of my check-in.
4. Relax
If I’m feeling really bougie, I’ll take this time to run a bath and have a bit of relaxation time. Sometimes I don’t have time for this and sometimes I don’t really need it. But other times, I do, and I think it’s a great way to reduce stress levels & reset for the coming week.
REVIEW
5. How Do I Feel?
The first thing I make a note of is how I’ve been feeling this week. Am I tired? Frustrated? Calm? Excited? I think it’s important to listen in to our emotions in order to be the happiest, healthiest human beings possible. If I’ve been feeling down, I try to take a few moments to write about why this was the case and what I can do in the next week to help myself. If I’ve been feeling excited or happy, I try to work out why and see how I can replicate this in future.
6. Review Last Weeks Goals
Next I take a look at my goals from the last week and see if I managed to achieve them. This can be as simple as a tick, or if I haven’t managed them for some reason, I write down why this is the case. I’ve found that checking in on my goals weekly has made me much better at staying accountable. It helps me to notice issues and implement changes, and also forces me to face up to where I haven’t been putting the effort in.
7. Values Check-In
I got this idea from Muchelle B and absolutely love it. As well as my goals, I also have a list of values that I try to stick to. These are more principles than targets and help me to lead my life in a way that’s meaningful to me. For example, one of my values is to honour my feelings. Another is to not care what other people think of me. These are the kind of things we all want to do but perhaps don’t always put into practice. I find that including them in my weekly check-in helps me to actually implement them in daily life.
PLAN
8. Brain Dump To-Dos
The first element of the planning segment is to do a big ‘brain dump’ of all of my to-dos. This could be anything from ‘ask Lucy if she wants to go to dinner on Friday’ or ‘take old clothes to the charity shop’. I find that getting all the things that have been floating around in my head onto paper really relieves a lot of stress.
9. Plan the Week
Once I’ve got my list of to-dos, I start planning my week. I personally do this on Google Calendars, which I always have open on my laptop and have pinned to the widgets section on my phone. I put in all of the events, work commitments and tasks for the week so I’ve got a good idea of what the next 7 days will look like.
10. Schedule in Exercise
I also use this time to schedule in exercise. I do this for 2 reasons: 1) it helps me to commit to exercise like I would a meeting or appointment, and 2) I like to really mix out my workouts from running to yoga to weight-lifting to body combat, so planning them for the week ensures that I can get a good mix in.
11. Decide on Goals for the Week
Finally, I decide on my goals for the next week. Now, these aren’t my big, scary (in an exciting way), life goals. These are smaller goals just for that week that will hopefully help me make progress towards my bigger goals. For example, when I was training for a half marathon, my weekly goal was to run three times that week. I make sure that these are SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-based). The idea is to keep me focused & ensure that I make progress, not to make me feel bad about not achieving all my wildest dreams yet.
