10 minutes on Sunday night, plan for next weekdaily

This is a daily routine for shaping your week. Use “10 minutes on Sunday night, plan for next week” to realign the rhythm of everyday life.

The moment you first open your calendar on Monday morning, the day is already in reactive mode. Meeting invitations, backlog of emails, Slack mentions—after 20 minutes of wondering what to do first, half of your focused energy is lost.

Planning for 10 minutes on Sunday night doesn't create a perfect weekly schedule. It is a ritual where you set only ‘three things I will keep next week’ and ‘two spaces to leave empty’. If you repeat it in the same spot every week, like the living room sofa or bedside table, Monday morning becomes less of a 'start' and more of a 'continuation'.

End of the weekend, Monday hasn't started yet

Open next week's calendar and mark only meetings, deadlines, and external events in color. There are quite a few details to do. The purpose is to see how many empty spaces are left. When I repeatedly see free time, such as Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I write down just one word, ‘Concentration’, in that slot. No need to worry again on Monday morning.

Start by turning on the 10-minute timer. When the time comes, put down the pen. You can skip any unfinished parts in 5 minutes on Monday morning. The goal of Sunday night planning isn't to plan the perfect week, but to reduce Monday morning decision fatigue. On a weekend evening, you can end the day with a light feeling.

three instead of ten

In my notebook, I just write three lines of ‘What I want to get done this week’. Each line begins with a verb. The more specific you are, such as ‘complete the first draft of the plan’, ‘organize team feedback’, and ‘exercise twice’, the less likely you are to be shaken on Monday. When you feel like writing down ten things, the ‘just three’ rule makes your planning realistic. Set aside the rest on your ‘nice to have’ list.

Decide on one thing to do in the first 30 minutes of Monday. ‘Priority Review’, ‘Inbox 15 Minutes’, ‘First Paragraph of Plan’—narrow it down to a level where you don’t have to decide in the morning. If you write down ‘Monday morning = this’ the night before, right after waking up you reach for that one thing instead of your smartphone. Half of Monday Blues splits in the ‘first act’.

Keep a separate list of nice-to-haves.

Mix it up with your weekly priorities and you'll go over it all again on Monday morning. On Sunday nights, it is enough to distinguish between ‘definitely this week’ and ‘later.’ It doesn't matter whether it's Google Calendar or Notion. The important thing is that you sit on the same day and at the same time every week.

If you repeat 10 minutes three times on Sunday night, you can get a rough idea of ​​how next week will start. The feeling of ending the weekend and closing a small door to the new week—that alone makes Monday mornings a little lighter.