Creating a ‘Perfect’ or ‘Ideal’ week or day spread in your journal is a great way to keep yourself on track with your goals, by reminding you of how you want to spend your valuable time.
Your spread can look however you want: It can be a vertical single page or horizontally across a double page, colour coded or minimalistic. You could even add in photos or drawings…
But the most important thing is that it represents a realistic version of your perfect day or week. It’s all well and good if your ‘perfect’ week involves being pampered at a spa and then having dinner and champagne with Sebastian Stan, but I think we can all agree that’s unlikely to happen every week. (Sorry.)
How Can a ‘Perfect Week’ Spread Help Me?
This type of spread is helpful to refer to when you’re feeling overwhelmed or like you’re not moving towards your goals. It’s so easy to spend an hour in the evening doom-scrolling on your phone, but if you allocate that time for activities that bring you joy, or help you towards your goals, you’re more likely to do them!
Things to Think About
Here are some things you might want to think about before creating your ‘Perfect Week’ or ‘Perfect Day’ spread:
- What do I have to do that is non-negotiable? (Eating, sleeping, working, school run, etc.)
- Who else do I need to consider? (Kids, partner, parents, etc.)
- What are your goals for the year? (Don’t forget to make them SMART goals!)
- What brings you joy? (Long baths, reading, journaling, playing with your kids, etc.)
- What do you always wish you had more time for? (Time with friends, being creative, exercise, etc.)
- Is there anything you are doing that you want to do less of? (Social media, watching TV, etc.)
- Are there any periods of time I can carve out for myself? (Evenings, mornings, lunch break, etc.)
Creating Your Spread
You can choose to focus on a single day, or a whole week. (If your weekdays are significantly different to your weekends, we recommend doing a whole week).
- Create a column for each day of the week across a double page spread, and then add the times down the side. We recommend starting from when you usually wake up until you usually go to bed.
- Write in your non-negotiable activities, such as meal times, work, school run, etc.
- Fill in anything else that you need to do but is perhaps less time-sensitive (e.g. Housework)
- Look at the space you have left and think about what you normally do in these times. Is it something that you want to do more or less of?
- Add in activities that will help you meet your goals, or contribute to your own self-care.
- Feel free to add a key and colour code your activities, like in the examples below. This really helps to see where your time is being spent.
Don’t Forget…
Your perfect day or week will look completely different to everyone else’s. Everyone has different priorities and responsibilities, and different amounts of free time. The aim of this spread is to remind yourself of the time you do have, and encourage you to use it more wisely, either for working towards a goal that you’ve set, or doing something you love.
Of course, sometimes all we want to do is veg in front of the TV and browse social media, and that’s totally fine too! As long as we are making conscious choices about how we spend our time, we don’t need to feel bad for relaxing.
Join us to set up your next journal!
Check out “Journal With Oops a Daisy” a 6 week programme to support you through journal set-up and beyond!
The programme is totally free to join with a small donation* to our chosen charity: St Clare Hospice, Hastingwood via our Just Giving page.
*No minimum, give what you can afford. Access to the resources is granted for 12 weeks after sign up.
