Welcome to The Week Ahead Planner!
This beautiful planner is a simple and effective way to not only meal plan but to organise your exercise routine, your to-do list, as well as help practice self-love & gratitude.
All you need to help rid some of the anxiety/pressure from your week is this one A4 piece of paper.
We’re keeping it simple and trying to rid that overwhelming feeling you might get on a Sunday when you think of your week ahead.
I created this weekly planner to get my life in order. It keeps me on track week after week which I was never able to achieve previously.
BONUS: It’s helped me save some extra money!
So what’s it all about?
The week ahead planner is broken into five parts.
Four parts you need to fill in before your week starts and one part you fill in at the end of each day.
The Week Ahead planner can be downloaded right here. Use the code BLOGPOST to download it for free.
It’s an editable PDF, therefore, you can either keep it saved on your desktop and fill it in each day or you can print off a big bunch of copies and handwrite it. Personally I love highlighting things when I have completed them so sometimes I type out my week ahead and then print it off and have it on my desk or in my diary for the week.
Let’s go through the five sections of the planner below.
Meal Planning
A big chunk of the week ahead planner is made up of meal planning.
The reason why meal planning is so important is that it saves you time. Valuable time that many of us are trying to find in our days.
Everyone’s schedules are different, and everyone’s needs are different. Identify the days you have less free time and plan your meals to save yourself the time you need. Pick your busy days, and make those meals the most simple or prepared ahead to help you later on.
Personally, if I am exercising after work, I like having my meals prepared to avoid me making up an excuse, not to workout.
Another benefit of meal planning is that you can do your best to buy everything for the week in one trip. Doing this should save not only time by not going to the supermarket a few times but also you should save a few dollars by only buying things on your list.
How to meal plan: Allocate yourself 30 minutes to go through the food you have at home and see what meals you could make with it. After that think of what other meals you would like and whether you are going to make leftovers for lunches or the next night’s dinner. Once done, write your shopping list and head to the supermarket.
If you new to meal planning and prepping I found a great post from Sweet Peas and Saffron with some great tips and meal ideas. Click here to read the post.
Exercise
Exercising is not only good for us physically but mentally as well which is why it’s important to include it in your weekly routine.
Everyone’s exercise routine will be different and personally I don’t think there is a right or wrong.
What’s important is finding something that suits your lifestyle and you get some sort of benefit from. That benefit might not be weight loss, increased muscle or you simply might just enjoy it!
Depending on your exercise routine you may have class times you need to make it to so note that down on the planner. If you’re like me and want to just get 3 or 4 classes done a week, I write them down in the days I want to get them done but if something comes up I have the flexibility to do them on another day.
As long as I get the sessions done by the end of the week I’m happy!
Make sure you do this today
This part is simple. What is something you can’t forget today?
Appointments, catch up’s with friends, literally anything that you don’t want to forget. Some weeks I just have the post office noted down on 4 of the days so I don’t forget to send orders off.
Seeing as though you are referring to this planner at least once a day, its a good place to have a constant reminder for any tasks you don’t want to forget.
Something for you
Self-care time!
How often do you jump into bed on a Friday night realise you haven’t spent one minute doing something you really enjoy yet this week?
I was doing it a lot. Especially whilst I am working and studying.
While self-care can mean different things to different people, the gist of it is right there in the name ━ it’s the act of taking care of yourself.
Planning something for you each day is my form of self-care. This act doesn’t have to be anything super time consuming or expensive, it just has to be something that helps you feel better physically, mentally, or emotionally.
Jumping on to Pinterest and searching “self-care ideas” will provide thousands of ideas however you need to find things that work for you.
Examples of my ”something for you” include:
– Reading a novel for 30 minutes before bed
– Having a bath
– Watching an episode of my favourite show
– Coffee with a good friend
– Having a cup of tea and reading some of my favourites blogs
– 15 minutes stretch and meditation
– An hour walk along with beach while listening to a podcast
Gratitude
Gratitude has been found to help people feel more positive emotions, reflect on good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.
Even with all of the amazing benefits just mentioned, many of us rarely practice gratitude.
Having a prompt to remind us to reflect on the day and think of something positive will help turn gratitude into a daily practice and a core part of our routine.
At the end of each day when you are ticking off or highlighting all the things you completed, spend a few minutes reflecting and jot down something good that happened today.
The Week Ahead planner can be downloaded right here. Use the code BLOGPOST to download it for free.
I would love to see how you are using it so don’t forget to tag @theorganised.hustler on Instagram.
Leave a Reply