After years of attempted (and failed) meetings to go over our schedules for the week on a Sunday or Monday morning, Johan and I decided to give ourselves a little wriggle room. We now meet on Friday or Saturday instead; when the mood is light and ambition is low (read, more realistic). The difference has been rather life (and marriage) changing. We usually make a coffee run and then cozy up on our balcony (when it’s warm enough) or family room with our planners and technology of choice. If you’re more fancy than us, you could head to a coffee shop or brunch spot to hash out your plan. Both things I hope to do every once in awhile, after it warms up. Until then, it’s hard to beat being in your pjs and under a blanket during the winter months!
HERE’S WHAT WE COVER:
- Anything on the calendar — Self explanatory
- Anything that we (might) want to add to the calendar — Like a date night or social gathering (i.e. “what should we do for the football game?”), if I have a deadline and might need an extra block of time, or any days Johan wants to pick-up overtime.
- We glance at the month ahead — Is there anything that requires our attention now?
- Menu Plan for the week — Mostly me rattling off ideas and Johan saying, “That sounds good!”, or “meh”.
- Projects we want to work on — Usually around the house, like organizing the garage, etc.
- Our wins and loses from the previous week and what we want to do about it — This doesn’t usually come up unless there’s an issue that’s been bugging us, usually about the kids (lol), but recently about our grocery bills (wtf). Also, admittedly we rarely talk about wins, but we should!
- Division of Labor — I’d say we have pretty traditional roles but sometimes I’ll ask Johan to make dinner one night or do the grocery run… A little help goes along way and his work schedule (usually) allows for it!
Altogether, it takes us about 45 minutes, but usually involves a few tangents! You could probably fit it all into 20 minutes if you’re more efficient. And, in an effort to be fully- real life – transparent, it’s mostly me dragging Johan through a meeting that he’s pretty indifferent about. I mean, he’s a happy participant, but he would never bring it up or remind me, or initiate if I forget or it’s fallen off my radar. Just a reminder that we can’t always make our spouse care about everything we do, but you can ask for their support… Especially if it’s helpful to you and therefore, the rest of the fam!
Just a couple of (not naturally organized) kids trying to keep their life in order and sometimes failing, but this little hack has helped so much that we wanted to share.
Do you plan on giving it a try? If so, I hope it works for you, too!
If you have any tips or tricks on the subject, please share in le comments!
xx, Rae
P.S. – You can shop our planning/time blocking page and notepad (HERE)… you’ll love it!!
We started doing this last year (we call it Marriage Meeting and we do it on Sundays), and it’s been so helpful, like you said!
The one thing we do differently is we start off our meeting with expressing appreciation. It has to be specific (thank you for the amazing fish tacos you made the other night vs thanks for always cooking for us) and mentioning more than one thing is even better. It really sets the tone for our meeting and helps us go into it relaxed.
I love that you guys are doing this too!
Oh, I love that! Great idea!