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As a freelancer, I have the benefit of being mostly in control of my schedule. That can also be a burden, as it means I alone must plan and execute everything on my todo list. One thing I’ve found helpful is dedicating Mondays to planning.
I love planning. I love organizing. I’m the type of person that would enjoy going to a container store. Sidenote: I’ve never actually been to a container store, but I’ve heard they exist. I love spreadsheets. The only thing I don’t love about planning is when I don’t give myself enough time to do it. If I plan the thing and do the thing at the same time, I get overwhelmed and stressed. One example is with cooking. If I have to plan a meal and make a meal so that I can immediately eat the meal, it takes the enjoyment out of the first two parts of the experience. If I skip the first part, I will inevitably realize I don’t have one of the important ingredients after I have already mixed the first half together. That’s a strong argument for planning, and it works the same way with non-food related work. So why not make Mondays (a day that nobody wants to do any real work anyway) solely a day for planning? Sure, little things may come up during the week that need attention right away, but since I’m planning ahead for most things, I can easily take care of the surprise tasks. I can tick each thing I plan off my list, which gives me a burst of dopamine, and energy to do more planning. By the end of the day, I’m excited to jump into the real work on Tuesday, or even by Monday afternoon if I run out of things to plan.
Examples of things to plan:
-Big picture stuff- the main work and the work schedule
-Lunch and dinner menus for the next day or the next few days
-Drafts of e-mails that need to be sent
-Writing ideas
-Ideas for Social media posts
If you are like me and enjoy planning, try this for a couple weeks and you might actually start looking forward to Mondays!
Thanks for reading!
Rebecca H. Lee
You can visit my narration website at becksvoice.com
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I’m definitely a planner. But I don’t plan very much when it comes to eating! I love to cook so I am one of those that throws things together, sometimes at the last minute. But not if I have guests. Guests stress me out because I gotta plan that to the last detail!
So true! I admittedly throw things together a lot of the time too. Even just cooking for one other person means they are at the mercy of my experiments!