How often do we get so busy with the daily tasks that we don’t notice that it’s already been a week? It happens to me at least monthly. Here are some things I do to try to make sure the days and weeks don’t pass unnoticed.

So many of our days are just on repeat. Things like breakfast, lunch and dinner. Morning routines of getting the kids up, dressed, fed, teeth and hair brushed, then either off to school or starting homeschool activities. The same kitchen floor needs swept, the trash needs taken out, the same clothes and towels need put away. It is easy to get into a rut of just doing it all and not even really mentally being there while your body is on auto pilot.

Therefore, my first tip is to be present. Mentally be in the moment. It sounds simple, but sometimes it isn’t. Your imagination would prefer that you be planning how you would handle laundry in your ideal laundry room as you fold little shirts. Sweeping the kitchen turns into daydreaming about how you would stock a pantry if you somehow, magically, had one. And when it gets too noisy in the house you are somehow suddenly planning what you would pack for a week long stay in a hotel…all by yourself.

Sometimes escapism is good. However, if we are trying to keep weeks from slipping by, we need to have our heads in the game more than once in a while. One way I stay mentally engaged in laundry is to keep a garbage can and a donate bag in the laundry room and sort out worn out or aged out clothes with every load. I may only put one thing in each container a week, but I am on the lookout. Also, I do not usually bring a hamper or basket with me. I put each category of things away from the dryer. It’s like a find the object game. If it was an in-day-go load (my father used to load the washer with anything that needed washed while saying this phrase), there’s a little bit of everything in there so my feet end up going to at least 3 different rooms of the house before the dryer is empty. I am getting my steps in and staying engaged with the process. My mind can easily slip off to daydream land, but having to walk to the linen closet to put away bath towels usually snaps me out of it again.

My next tip is to have at least one activity a week that happens the same day every week. Now a lot of people have going to Church as a sort of anchor point, but that alone does not work for me. I have a weekly get-together with a sister and her kids for us to plan, scheme, giggle, and drink yummy tea or hot chocolate. For you this may look like meeting your mom or sister at a coffee shop for a chat (with stuff to occupy any kids who come along). It may be a scheduled weekly phone call with a friend. It could be the weekly meeting for your Bible study, book club, homeschool group, library outing, martial arts class, or your Pampered Chef / Mary Kay / LegalShield meeting. Any of these could be a great way to pleasantly disrupt the day in and day out flow of care giving.

Another way to notice time passing is to just plain keep track of it. I love planners. I have a personal one, one for each of my businesses, one specifically for my health/workouts, and one for homeschooling. I also have a desk calendar on the front of the fridge for general household scheduling (dentist appointments, birthdays, writing an overview of eventful days or unpleasant happenings. (By the way, I keep these calendars. They are a useful way to look back and see exactly when something happened a couple years ago.) For on the go, and reminders I use my phone calendar. Nearly every scheduled appointment is documented in at least two places. Writing out all the things you did on a family outing on the big refrigerator calendar is a great way to notice not only time passing, but the fun, good things that are happening on a weekly basis. Looking at a calendar month and seeing a birthday, a bank holiday, and an annual festival written on it can bring you out of the doldrums and into planning mode, or simply put an anticipatory smile on your face.

My most important tip (for me, anyway), is to put yourself on your list. We so often are concerned with what needs to happen for other people in a day that we are not even on our own lists. There doesn’t even have to be much. Start with the basics: Take a few days and track your water intake, your protein, do some stretching, and make sure you get enough sleep. These building blocks of care are what give us the physical energy to look into how we are taking care of other parts of ourselves. If we are hydrated, fed, aren’t feeling physically knotted up or sleepy, we have the energy to go for a walk, are awake enough to read a chapter of a book (whether for self-improvement or the fun of it), have some stamina for playing with the kids, and in general be a better version of ourselves. From here, you can start adding in other things that may count as self-care for you. These could include journaling, keeping a personal planner, taking a class online, learning a sport or another language, decluttering your personal environment, or doing a square foot a day deep clean on your kitchen because it has been bothering you for a while but you haven’t had the energy to actually tackle it. You know, little things. lol

They say time is relative; I interpret that as meaning the way you perceive time changes how you experience it. Twenty minutes in the waiting room feels as long as two hours on the phone with your best friend. And if we’re not actually present in our daily lives a month can feel like a long, miserable week. If we are deep enough in misery several months can slip past and we wonder how it’s already the next season. Which is one of the reasons I started decorating for each season (it’s amazing how much your living room can change for a well thought out $20 at a dollar store.).

With all this said, it does not take much to keep the days from running together. Find what works for you. It may be one of these suggestions, all of these suggestions, or something you find on your own. As long as you make the change necessary to feel more present and happy each week I would count it as a win. I wish you a present, fulfilled week, my friend.