7 Easy Ways to Prep for the Week Ahead
Hello there, friends! I hope you are doing well! I am bringing you another of my favorite lists, today! Ways to prep for the week! Weekly prep and meal planning are right up there with goal setting and planners for me! I love it!
Table of Contents
Benefits of Prepping for the Week
- Having everything prepped ahead of time can really help get your week off to a smoother start.
- When a lot of your daily, sometimes time-consuming tasks, it also helps your days run a lot smoother and saves you time each day.
- If you are prepping on Sunday for the week and come across an issue, you can address it beforehand, so you don’t have any unwanted surprises during the week.
- Working in batches saves you time on each task overall. An example would be Ironing your clothes ahead of time. If you spent time each night before work to take out your ironing board, heat up your iron, iron your clothes, and then put everything away again, you could save yourself and just do it all at once before the week starts.
- Having a plan and being prepared will save you money overall, especially when it comes to food.
- Including family in this prep will ensure that everyone is on the same page throughout the week.
Finnish Up Household To-Do’s
For me, the first step to prepping for the upcoming week is by finishing up anything leftover from the current week. Laundry, dishes, cleaning, etc. Anything that needs finishing up to start the week off with a fresh start.
You can’t start a fresh new week with last week’s stuff still sitting around.
Plan Meals and Shop with a List
This step saves us so much trouble throughout the week. I am terrible at coming up with dinners on the fly and I refuse to have chicken nuggets every night. So this is a must for me.
We sit down on Saturday and plan out our dinners for the upcoming week. We also decide what we are going to be having for breakfasts and lunches, but we don’t worry too much about lunch since it’s usually sandwiches and leftovers.
Once we have the meals all figured out, I see what we have in the pantry that we can use, and then make a list of whatever else we need. When I get to the store, I stick to the list. This saves money, time, and sanity!
Meal Prep for the Week
If you can take an hour or two to do some meal prep, it will save you so much time in the long run. It will save you money as well if you aren’t buying lunch every day or frequrently getting take out for dinner.
Batch cooking certain foods and storing for later can be a huge time saver for all meals as well. We do this with rice a lot. We make a big batch and then use it for lunches and dinners throughout the week. This can be done with a lot of different grains and pastas!
I like to prep a veggie platter and cut up fruit to keep for snacks. I am far more likely to make a healthy choice if it is prepped and ready for me.
You can make this as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. It can be a simple process if you don’t want anything super fancy. I’ll share some ideas below, friends!
Breakfast
Granola or granola bars, egg muffins, fruit cups with yogurt, sandwiches and burritos. These are some quick and easy examples of breakfast that you can prep!
If you prefer smoothies, you can prep ingredients for those in plastic baggies and freeze until you’re ready to use them.
Lunch
Salads, protein boxes, soups, stews, burritos. There are somethings like sandwiches and wraps that I prefer to make the night before.
Depending on what equipment you have access to for lunch, you will need to prep accordingly.
Dinner
Freezer bag dinners and insta pot meals can be a life saver if you are short on time! We like to make meals that build off each other to avoid waste. If we make a pork roast for dinner one night, we plan the next meal to use the leftovers and build upon that. It helps us out and makes meal planning a little easier as well.
Review To-Do Lists, Goals, Finances
Spend some time looking at any upcoming appointments or deadlines for the week to hopefully avoid some surprises later on. Review any to do lists or take this time to create some to prep for the week.
If you are a goal oriented person, like myself, then this is a great time to also review any goals you have for the week. Spend some time planning out how you can achieve these or take positive steps toward their completion.
I like to spend some time and review household finances as well. We try to stick to a budget every week so this helps me know where we are at for the upcoming week and helps me to be more aware of my spending during the week.
Make A Schedule and Set Priorities for the Week
Once you have reviewed your To-Do list, or made one, and goals for the upcoming week, it’s time to make a plan to achieve them. I find it is easy to work them into my day if I include them in my regular prep for the week.
Make a schedule or daily to do list (whichever works best for you) to help keep you on track all week. Make it as easy or as complicated as you want. Pick a few things to have as your priority goals of the week.
Make sure schedule yourself some self care time, you deserve it!
Plan Out Wardrobe
One of the most frustrating things in the mornings for me is trying to get dressed. I can never decide what to wear! And even worse, if what I want to wear is in the laundry, I’m already in a bad mood for the day then lol.
Make sure you can easily find your belts, scarves, accessories, shoes, especially if you wear multiple pairs a day, like gym shoes and works shoes, etc.
If you have any clothes that need to be ironed or freshened up, this is a great opportunity to do it in a larger batch and save the set up time everyday.
Prep All Bags, Briefcases etc.
If you have a work bag or gym bag that you use everyday, it’s a good idea to take a few minutes and make sure it is up to date with everything you need. If you use soaps or shampoo at the gym, this is a good time to restock and reorganize.
Same for bags that you use for work or school. Make sure you have any supplies you may need for the week ahead.
Thank you for taking the time to read my article, friends! I hope you have found something helpful here today! Have an amazing day!
If you enjoyed this article, you can find more of my prepping tips here to help Prep for an Awesome Morning!
I am a super planner who loves to be prepared. But sometimes I start lacking in that area and life gets busy. Thank you for the tips!
I am definitely a super planner as well!!
Great tips! I do the same, though I plan my meals but don’t prep so much. I use Hungry Root for help with our meals 🙂
Thank you for the tip!
Really useful thank you! I’ll be trying some of these ideas ❤️
Thank you so much! Let me know how it goes!
Some great hints here! Thanks for sharing!
I love a good plan! This is such awesome post thanks for sharing.
This is a great list, I’m making a checklist out of it. Thank you so much!
Great advice! I always try to prep ahead for meals and everything else basically. Saves time and my sanity!