Admin Sundays

I am someone who really struggles with being productive. If given the choice between getting shit done and laying on the couch, I am always going to choose the couch.

I am also an adult who needs to get things done, from big tasks like meal planning and grocery shopping for the week to smaller things like filling out my planner. So that’s why I decided to institute “Admin Sundays.”

Typically, I hold my Sundays sacred. Sometimes, I might meet up with Mikaela for a writing date or I might try to get in a workout at the gym, but that’s about the extent of my plans. (This all changes from September – early February with football season. I’m not sure what I’m going to do then, but that’s a problem for Future Stephany.) The rest of my Sunday is for me. It’s for naps and reading and writing blog posts and catching up on blog reading. It’s also for administrative tasks.

I came up with a list of tasks that I need to do every week to set myself up for success so I can tackle the week ahead. This list lives in my Notes app on my phone and when I finish a task, I can mark it off and get that little rush of dopamine.

Here is what is on my “Admin Sundays” list right now:

• Meal plan and grocery shop for the week
• Itemize spending and set my weekly budget
• Fill out my planner for the week and list out my weekly goals
• Inbox zero for my personal Gmail account
• Clean my CPAP parts
• Clean out fridge/freezer
• Make snack packs for the week
• Schedule the podcast’s Instagram posts for Tuesday and Thursday

From beginning to end, all of these tasks shouldn’t take more than an hour or two, which is totally doable on a Sunday. And I always feel super accomplished when I can get all of these tasks done. For example, I used to be really bad about checking my budget regularly and itemizing all of my purchases. But now that it’s on my task list for Admin Sundays, I have yet to miss a week of itemizing! This means I am way more on top of my spending habits than I used to be.

The idea for “Admin Sundays” originally came from the Girl Next Door podcast when Kelsey talked about having a monthly admin day to take care of those nagging monthly tasks we all have to do. I loved this idea so much that I created a monthly admin task list and played around with setting aside one day per month to accomplish these tasks. I quickly realized a monthly admin day wasn’t going to be sustainable for me (it’s really hard to set aside a full day to myself every month!). But I didn’t want to abandon these tasks because they are important.

What I do now is choose two tasks from this monthly admin list to accomplish every week. This way, I can mark off those important monthly tasks but at a slower pace that works much better for my personality.

Here are my monthly admin tasks:

• Update my wall calendar
• Create a new monthly spread in my planner with my goals
• Organize the previous month’s photos in Google Photos, delete duplicates/photos I don’t need to keep on my native Photos app
• Change my apartment’s air filter, check on Wallflower scents, and change my CPAP’s filter
• Review birthdays – buy gifts, sign cards
• Do some blog work – download a backup, run a security scan, update one thing on Site Health list, etc.
• Clear out the shelf on my walk-in closet + empty bin
• Take my car for a wash and vacuum

Some call-outs here:

• Organizing photos – I get very overwhelmed by having too many photos in my native Photos app so a few years ago, I downloaded Google Photos and started organizing all of my photos into specific folders. It took a while, but now I just have to make sure I maintain this practice monthly.
• Reviewing birthdays – I love this idea from Kelsey! My friend group loves giving thoughtful gifts for birthdays, and sometimes I’m forgetful about researching gift ideas beforehand. With this task, I take a look at the upcoming month to see what holidays/birthdays are coming up and make sure I have what I need: the gift, the card, the gift bag, etc.
• Blog work – Every month, I download a backup of my blog (my blog does automatic backups, but I like to have a tangible copy of the backup), check in on any security issues/updates, and then go through the Site Health list that greets me every time I log into WordPress. Many of these issues are way above my capacity to handle (I should really hire a WordPress developer to take care of those, but alas), but there are some that I can take care of myself.
• Clearing out the closet – I tend to use the left-side shelf of my walk-in closet as a catch-all space. Often, this is where I put clothes that have been worn but aren’t yet ready to be washed, as well as books I want to donate and other odds and ends. I also have a bin on this shelf where I throw all sorts of papers into. These papers need to be appropriately filed away, which I do once a month when I tackle this task on my list.

And somehow I’ve written almost 1,000 words on “Admin Sundays”. (LOL – I really thought this was going to be a short-and-sweet post.) Having this routine has helped my productivity so much. It doesn’t feel too overwhelming for my limited energy, but still makes me feel super accomplished and ready to handle the week ahead.

What side do you fall on: productivity princess or couch potato?