Sunday. A day of rest. And so it should be, particularly if you’ve worked hard all week. It’s a great day to take things easy, relax, catch up with friends and generally do nothing in particular.
So now I’m going to throw the cat among the pigeons and suggest you do some work. I can hear the screams of resistance from here, but before you all get very irate, let me explain how half an hour of your time today could make next week one of the most productive ever.

Sunday is a great day to plan the rest of your week, to make sure you get the maximum achievement from the minimum of effort and end the week with so many things ticked off you list you won’t believe it. Too often we sit down on a Monday morning and think “Right, what shall I do today “ and then spend the next half an hour or so dithering over what to do first so by the time we actually start being productive, the morning almost over.

Then we get up on Tuesday and start the same process all over again and find ourselves at the end of the week wondering where all the time went and why we didn’t manage to get more done. To save all this procrastination, why not spend half an hour or so this evening planning your week?

By now, most of us will have all our appointments and meetings scheduled, so they’re the first things we should concentrate on. Has all the necessary preparation been done? Are all the things you’ll need gathered together and good to go? If not, then you need to allocate time the day before each meeting getting these things done. You also need to set aside time in each day to deal with the routine and by this I mean things like email, social media, etc.

Once all this time has been allocated, look realistically at how much time is left in each day and plan what you’re going to do in that time. The smaller the amount of time available, the better you’ll have to plan to make sure you use all that time to its best effect, but be realistic about what can actually be achieved in the time available. If you effectively give yourself 12 hours of work, then you’ll need to start at 7am and finish at 7pm – and not stop for lunch, or anything else, for that matter, in between. Not a good idea. Instead, allocate only as much work as you can reasonably get done in the time available each day.

In essence, you’re making yourself a timetable. Something that dictates what gets done when and for how long. Then, not only will you get more done each day, but there’ll be no wasted time in the morning shuffling papers and deciding on where to start. If you keep the lists of tasks sufficiently short, you’ll manage to end every day on a high when you look at your list and realise you’ve done everything you set out to. And you can relax for the rest of the evening knowing roughly what tomorrow holds and be confident that it’ll all get done by the end of the day.

So, off you go and get those lists prepared – it should only take half an hour. And then pour a glass of wine, sit back, relax, and realise that, come the morning, you’ll hit the ground running and get more done than you ever thought possible.

Result!