We made it! It’s Friday – or your next work break if you do something without traditional weekends. I always appreciate when someone wishes me a happy weekend – even if I’m working through it – because what they’re really saying is they hope I get some good rest.
We all deserve some time for ourselves at the end of a productive work week. But before you completely unwind with that book you’ve been meaning to read, here are six prompts to tie this week up and start your next one off strong:
1. What was your biggest accomplishment this week?
It is way too easy for us to get into a rut thinking about all the things we wanted to do but didn’t. This type of reflection is necessary, but it’s completely unproductive if we don’t also reflect on what we have accomplished.
I guarantee you there is something you did well this week. If you can’t see it, someone who worked with, contacted, or sought advice from you can. Acknowledging this will motivate you to continue to do good work. You deserve recognition for all that you do.
2. Who/what was your biggest support?
Recognize your people and leverage your resources. If someone put a smile on your face this week, don’t forget that. If a particular community agency was helpful to you or your clients, keep them in mind, or better yet, support them. We need to be cognizant of who and what builds us up so that we can foster these relationships. Make note of your biggest supports, and make sure they know you appreciate them.
3. What will you do more of?
What routines, collaborations, techniques, and boundaries worked well for you this week? What actions did you take that moved you forward in terms of accomplishing the things that matter to you? If you you did something differently this week and it worked well, replicate it. Do it again.
In clinic, I’ve found that when I actively listen to patients without typing at all and then ask for a minute to jot down what they’ve said, I’m better able to listen and I’m more efficient in my charting. Once I started using this technique, I decided to try it more and more so that I could work it into my office work flow. I don’t always chart this way, but when I do, I have a lot less to catch up on at the end of the day.
4. What will you do less of?
Let’s be real: not everything about your work week was perfect. Mine neither. It’s okay. The key here is not to get caught up in the drama of the situation, but to identify how you can shape it. Is there anything that’s draining your productivity? One thing I have to remind myself whenever I’m confronted with gossip is that I’m not available for other people’s drama. It sounds harsh, but it’s really just a reminder that I’d rather not talk about things that have nothing to do with positive change.
The negative vibes that you got during the week were indicators of how best to manage your time. Make note of anything that brought you down, made you uncomfortable, or took too much out of you so you can avoid it in the future.
5. What’s your priority for next week?
This could be a task that didn’t get done or a point of self-care that you’d like to focus on. It’s important to remind yourself of your goals so that you don’t get lost in minutiae. Dates and overall vision can get lost when we’re trekking through one busy day at a time. And our self-care? Well that’s even easier to neglect. So, I encourage you to set your intention for next week right now.
(Read: The #1 Secret to Using Your Weekly Planner)
6. What’s your priority for right now?
This is an invitation to retreat inwards and to put yourself and your other passions in the forefront. Which of them will you be working on during your time away from work? Weekends can be for complete relaxation, but you can also use them to move forward in other passionate goals.
If there’s something you’d like to spend more time doing, could you make that a priority for this break? When I set my intention, I spend a lot of my weekends writing, editing, or traveling. (Okay, and sometimes, just on having a quiet introvert’s weekend.) On the flipside, when I don’t think about this beforehand, I spend a lot of my weekends just catching up.
Summary
So there you have it: six questions to answer at the end of your productive work week. I believe that the best weeks are the ones that you’ve reflected on, which requires an emphasis on self-care. If you’d like tips and reminders about how to prioritize your self-care to maximize your productivity, then join our email community below.
Talk to you soon and have an amazing weekend!
