The Sunday Routine

It's Sunday and I am under the gun to wrap up my expense reports and prepare for the meetings the next day. My day will also include taking my daughter to the playground, drinking much coffee, picking up grocery items, and cleaning in preparation for the cleaning ladies (I know cleaning before cleaning ladies come sounds OCD, but it's really all about removing the top layer of mess so they can reach the bottom layer - my daughter is about to turn four...this is the way of our life).

I abhor expense reports (and timesheets - this is a great blog post from an author who hates timesheets on a similar scale) and I am chronically late at submitting them. Even after a few weeks of submitting my timesheets on time, I was back wearing the dunce's hat this week for late expense reports. I hate this kind of thing.

While I don't condone violence, can't deny this image made me laugh.

This is kind of my regular Sunday ritual, so when I saw the #SundayRoutine hashtag this morning, I thought about what my routine is and how many other people are doing the same things. Actually, I have often wondered what goes through association folks' minds when Monday looms. I imagine there are a lot of people like me who have things already waiting for them before Monday hits. But is that anxiety really necessary?

• Does the anxiety make a difference in the outcome?
• Will the stress make you more or less productive?
• Are you putting pressure on someone else before Monday? Is it necessary?

I used to stress out a lot on Sundays. I had a project meeting waiting for me Monday morning that would sometimes run for two hours and could make or break my week. So many times I complained to my husband about my Monday morning meetings, but it took two years of them before I thought to suggest meeting a different day and time to my boss. Two years!

Many times we make our more negative routines what they are by either forcing ourselves into an uncomfortable schedule or by not suggesting a better way.

Today my professional Sunday routine is all about wrapping up time sheets and expense reports for work and I am happy to have a weekly report on a more manageable Tuesday at 10 am. But I still put off the tasks that I loathe. I'll even read blog posts about time management rather than actually attack the task I don't want to do. [For a great blog post on Time Management for Association Folks, take a look at Nikki Jeske's post for the Affiniscape blog.]

So what is your Sunday routine? What might you change so that your Monday is a little bit better? Is there a change that could be instituted association-wide to make the association run better? How would your association become more effective and productive?