Maybe it’s because I’ve been doing monthly challenges for so long or maybe it’s because the pandemic almost feels like a restart, but I’ve been doing a lot of repeat challenges lately. I’m ok with repeating them because it’s clear that I still have work to do on a previous challenge. And it seems like each time I do a repeat challenge, there is a little bit that is different from any other time I challenged myself to do it.
In April, I had a challenge that was similar to past ones. My challenge was to figure out what my real free time was each day. Because I had been working on scheduling things, I started to feel like I wasn’t having free time in my day even though I knew it was in my schedule. So I focused even more on making my schedule clear to me and easy to access so I could tell when I could step away from work things for the day.
I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to accomplish this, but I actually found a tool at the beginning of April that has been a huge game-changer for me. It’s a little calendar app called Itsycal. It syncs with different calendars you might have and adds a little calendar with a daily schedule breakdown to your computer toolbar. I know that I could just open up the calendar app on any of my devices to see what my schedule is that day, but having it so easy to access has been great for me. I review it several times a day to make sure that I’m planning ahead for my day. I’m able to see when I’m done with scheduled work each day very clearly. And even though I do have things that I have to do each day that are not on my calendar, it still is so helpful to see all the things that have to be done at a certain time.
I do still need to work on feeling like I can step away from my computer when I know I’m done with work. But I’m getting better about being very clear about what I have to do and what I can wait to do if I’m feeling like I need a break.
And just like I’ve been doing a lot, this month my monthly challenge is another one that I’m bringing back from the past. I’ve had a lot of different monthly challenges about meal planning and cooking. I have gotten better about cooking because of the pandemic and that is something I am proud of. But meal planning is still something that overwhelms me a bit. The idea of planning for every day in a week at once is a lot. But I recently saw something online that inspired me to try meal planning in a different way.
This person had created weekly meal plans to pick from each week. They designed a full 7-day meal plan (their plan may have just been dinners, which is probably what I’d do too) and added it to their collection. Yes, it’s a lot more work upfront than regular meal planning, but after they created all these different weeks it was easy from then on. When they were getting ready to grocery shop for the next week, they picked one of the weekly plans they already created. Other people commented saying they had 6 or 8 weeks planned out and they just rotated from one week to the next so they didn’t even have to think which week to use.
It might still be overwhelming to create weekly meal plans, but I do like the idea of having them ready to go when I’m done with that initial work. I don’t know if I’m going to create enough at first to just rotate through them without needing to make more, but that is a nice goal to have in mind.
So my challenge this month is to at least get started on creating weekly meal plans. I want to see what I can pull together that will make grocery shopping easier and that will allow me to plan a bit more in advance. I don’t feel like I have to be super strict if I create these plans because I do want to have some room to get delivery food or go out to eat with a friend. But to me, the goal of a meal plan isn’t to be perfect but to have a plan in mind. I don’t want to be looking into my fridge or freezer with no clue on what I want to have for dinner.
Hopefully, I can take advantage of some of my newfound free time and get at least a few weeks planned out and maybe start implementing this idea!
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