How To Accomplish Tasks With a Sunday Journaling Routine

This article originally appeared nesswell.com on March 3, 2022

Do you ever find yourself stuck in a rut of procrastination when Sunday rolls around? By the time your work week ends, your motivation may end with it. After giving yourself a mental break on Friday and Saturday, it’s hard to get back into the groove of things.

The Sunday scaries may be hard to overcome, but you can easily fight them by creating a set journaling routine for yourself. You may have heard of the phrase “A Sunday well spent brings a week of content.”

By focusing on a productive Sunday, you can shake off your blues and mentally stimulate yourself for the work week ahead.

Designing a Sunday Reset Routine

Creating a Sunday routine centered around journaling is one of the hardest parts of the entire process. Luckily, we’ve designated the four steps you can take to make your reset day (it doesn’t always have to be on a Sunday, you know) a breeze. 

• Evaluate and reflect on the week you just had. What were the things that stressed you out? What brought you joy? It’s important to note all of these things in your journal to bring balance into your life and mindset before moving forward. Maybe write some wins and roadblocks throughout your week — it’s beneficial to write a little bit every day.

• Plan what you’d like to accomplish during your reset day and the week ahead. Are there any identifiable stressors that you can see from a mile away? Jot them down, and come up with a game plan for how to overcome them.

• Reset by taking your calculated thoughts and putting them into action. Make your journaling jump off the page by completing all the tasks you have assigned for yourself on your reset day.

• Rest when you have achieved your goals. You deserve to feel accomplished at the end of a long reset day, and resting with your favorite TV show or book can be the perfect start to your week.
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The 1-3-5 Rule Makes a Reset Easy

Whether you consider Sunday to be the end or beginning of your week, it doesn’t change the fact that getting anything accomplished on your day of rest is a difficult task. This can be especially difficult for adults with ADHD.

That’s why we created a printable template to help you accomplish some journaling goals to get you motivated and on-track to start tackling your thoughts that are both large and small. 

Choose a Single Major Task

Is there a task that you need to complete that has been weighing you down the last couple of weeks? One of the best ways to calm the anxiety surrounding you is by writing about how you will find a way to overcome it.

Large tasks can consume your thoughts—especially when they start to stack up. That’s why it’s important to tackle at least one task every week so you can stay ahead of them. 

Major tasks include errands or chores like doing a grocery run, deep cleaning your kitchen, or tackling the large pile of laundry that has been taunting you. 

Next, List 3 Intermediate Tasks

Intermediate tasks are smaller chores that you can fit into your schedule, between the smaller and larger tasks that need to be completed. However, figuring out where to schedule these can cause anxiety. 

Journal about the stress you’re facing to confront your feelings head-on. What aspects of these tasks make you want to pause? Is there a smaller task you can accomplish while completing an intermediate task to make you feel reinvigorated?

By figuring out where to place your tasks that you want to complete, you can accomplish multiple goals at one time. Say you want to vacuum your living room (intermediate task) on the same day where you do your laundry (large task). By creating a visual aid in your journal to organize your tasks, you can figure out that vacuuming can occur while the clothes are washing, and you can do another intermediate task (walking the dog, perhaps) while the clothes are in the dryer. 

And there you have it! By journaling and visually organizing your Sunday reset routine, you have accomplished three tasks in the time it takes you to do one major task.

Lastly, Jot Down 5 Minor Tasks

We’re not finished yet! Now that your Sunday reset routine planning is coming together, it’s time to find a place to fit five minor tasks to accomplish throughout your day — bringing the total to nine tasks.

Does the number “five” next to the word “tasks” stress you out? It doesn’t have to! “Minor” means just that—these tasks are a breeze to complete and can leave you with the same feeling of purpose and drive.

Like the three intermediate tasks above, you can work these five minor tasks into the larger tasks like wooden nesting dolls. Call a loved one while you walk your dog while your laundry tumbles in the dryer. Listen to the chapter of an audiobook while you vacuum while you clean furniture.

It’s important to journal your task completion strategy in order to find success — an important journaling technique.

Don’t Forget to Rest

One of the most important aspects of a Sunday reset routine is, well, the reset. Give yourself the grace to turn your brain off and rest when all your tasks and organization goals are said and done. 

As an added bonus, you can even include resting time as a major or intermediate task for your Sunday routine if you have just survived a hectic work week. 

Go to a movie at your favorite cinema and relax with a serving of popcorn. Maybe you can get a weekend food special at a local restaurant and indulge on comforts that bring you peace. Do your daily journaling and task checklist template at a coffee shop while taking in some fresh air or ambience. 

It’s important to make sure that treating yourself is always part of your routine.

(You can download and print this infographic)

Author bio: Mona Freund was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany. She lived in Connecticut for four years, where she was a collegiate swimmer. Back in her home country, she obtained her master’s degree in Industrial & Organizational Psychology, while working for a publisher learning all about content creation, copywriting and SEO.