Day 6 – Have One Cheat Day
Nutrition experts tell us that when dieting, it’s a good idea to have one cheat day a week, where we can enjoy our favorite foods in moderation. This prevents feelings of deprivation, which can lead to binging, or falling off the wagon altogether. Likewise, it makes sense to have a cheat day when designing your week to prevent boredom and loss of motivation.
A cheat day is not a license for slacking off or playing hooky. It’s simply a day where you tone down the pressure and work in a more relaxed frame of mind. To follow are the required action steps for this challenge:
- Ideally, a cheat day should be scheduled in the middle of the week to give you a respite from the daily grind and rejuvenate your energy. Try to get all of your priority tasks done before your cheat day if possible. If not, schedule them for the day after.
- Use your cheat day to work on creative tasks that stimulate your mind in all the right ways. What you find creative and stimulating depends on your personal preferences and situation. For example, if you enjoy writing, you can use your cheat day to compile reports or presentations or work on a book you intend to publish. Or, you can use your cheat day to design graphs or search for images that you need for another task.
- Use your cheat day to experiment with new tools or software that you think can boost your productivity and save time.
- Schedule as many mundane tasks as you can. These are tasks that don’t require deep focus or concentration. Inject enjoyment into these tasks by doing them while listening to music or enjoying a cup of herbal tea. You can try working on these tasks in a group setting, which will make them less dreary.
- Try to end your cheat day early. Consider ordering in and opt to enjoy a quiet and relaxing evening. End your perfect cheat day by going to bed early.
The goal: A cheat day can help break the pressure of a crowded week and renew your energy. It’s not a waste of time because you’re still going to work!
Day 7 – Chalk Up Your Wins
Naturally, when you finish a task on or before time, you feel satisfied and relieved. But you can go beyond that by learning to think of every achievement, no matter how small, as a win. Think of your week as a competition where you are determined to come out a winner. This will do wonders for your motivation and energy.
The last challenge requires you to chalk up your wins every day and to give yourself a big pat on the back. You can develop the winner mindset in the following ways:
- Estimate the size of your daily wins based on the tasks at hand.
Finishing high-priority tasks is a big win. Getting through a task that requires focus and concentration can be a medium win, while regular mundane tasks can be seen as mini-wins. As you tick off each completed task and see your wins piling up, your motivation and sense of accomplishment will skyrocket.
- Learn to regard setbacks and failures as wins.
The lessons you learn from them will make you wiser and more resilient, and help you ensure that you avoid those setbacks in the future. Also, setbacks and failures can help you spot future warning signs to pre-empt them before they occur. When you learn to view failures and setbacks in this way, you will see that they are actually wins in disguise.
- Create a personal reward system and don’t wait for others to reward you.
Chalk up your wins at the end of the week and reward yourself with an appropriate treat. Don’t go overboard, and make sure that your reward is proportionate to the tasks you have achieved.
For example, finishing a task that earns you a promotion deserves a bigger reward than a mundane task such as organizing your inbox. Remember to be completely honest with yourself and not let the anticipation of a reward let you get carried away. If a task is done poorly or not completed, don’t reward yourself.
- Chalk up your wins daily and decide how you want to reward yourself.
Your reward system can be a daily or weekly one, or even a bi-weekly one, depending on what you find keeps you most motivated.
- Reflect on your wins when you are going through a rough patch or a crisis.This will remind you that you can overcome anything and come out a winner each and every time!
The goal: Learning to see your weekly accomplishments as wins will add another pillar to designing your best week ever. More importantly, seeing your life as a series of wins will help you overcome setbacks more quickly and move on with more resilience and resolve.
Conclusion
Designing your best week ever is entirely in your hands. You can take control and be your best every day by completing this challenge. Not only will the 7 steps help you design an amazing week, but they will also sow the seeds for a number of powerful habits that will ensure your productivity and success in everything that you do.
What’s great about this challenge is that it requires no complex methods or major upheavals to your life. You can easily implement these practices and change your mindset by following the challenge for several weeks.
So, don’t you think it’s worth your while to learn how to design your best week ever? Try the challenge and see how it can transform your whole approach to planning. And better yet, don’t stop at one week, but continue to design many more consecutive best weeks ever!
Hello, I’m Lorene Troyer, a designer and digital creator, passionate about turning ideas into beautiful, sellable products. I help coaches, mentors, and entrepreneurs transform their wisdom into income-generating digital businesses through polished templates, printables, and ThriveCart sales pages. See my book on Amazon My articles on Medium: https://medium.com/@LoreneTroyer and please connect with me on X: https://x.com/LoreneTroyer1