Monday morning, your alarm goes off and immediately the stress hits. What should I work on first? What's most important? Where do I even start? You already feel behind before you've had your coffee. Monday morning overwhelm doesn't start on Monday morning. It actually starts Sunday night when you didn't plan. Hi, I'm Cindy Gordon, a self-made entrepreneur, busy mom and execution coach. I've built and sold multiple digital businesses, and I can tell you the difference between a chaotic Monday and calm productive weeks. It comes down to 10 minutes that you spend on Sunday. Before we dive in, if you're not getting my weekly productivity tips yet, grab them using the link in the show notes. These are the behind the scenes systems that I use to stay productive while running my business. In the next five minutes, I'm breaking down the exact Sunday planning routine that I use to set up productive weeks Sunday evening rolls around and you're probably enjoying some downtime. It may be catching up on Netflix or 90 day fiance if you are like me, sunday evening rolls around and you're probably enjoying some downtime. Maybe you are spending time with your family if you have one, catching up on Netflix or binging some 90 day fiance if you are like me. But when Monday morning arrives, it comes fast and suddenly your scrambling, which client needed attention first? What project deadline is looming? Should I be working on marketing or operations or the thing that I've been putting off for weeks? This recurring theme? This is yet another recurring theme that I see with the incredible women in my community, the entrepreneurs in my dollar a day business support system. The Growth Collective describe this perfectly. They spend Sunday evening avoiding. Even thinking about the week ahead, then they pay for it Monday morning when the panic sets in. You know, you should plan your week, but planning feels like work and Sunday is supposed to be a day off, right? The truth is when you don't plan your week on Sunday, Monday makes the plan for you, and Monday's plan usually involves some chaos. Your brain actually resists planning because it feels like additional work on top of everything you already do. Planning takes cognitive energy, and when you're already overwhelmed, you brain says, Nope. We're conserving energy for the actual work. When you start Monday without a plan, your brain has to make hundreds of micro decisions throughout the day. Every email that lands makes you wonder, is this important? Every task makes you question, should I be doing this now? And then decision fatigue, it sets in by 10:00 AM and suddenly you've wasted three hours just figuring out what to focus on. Sunday planning gives your brain a roadmap. When Monday arrives, you're not starting from zero. You're starting from what matters. The 10 minutes you spend on Sundays saves you hours of confusion and decision fatigue throughout the week. That's not extra work. That's strategic efficiency. Let me show you the Sunday planning routine that transforms Chaotic Mondays into calm productive weeks. So this is exactly how you're gonna plan your week in about 10 minutes. First, you're gonna start with a three minute brain dump. Just a small brain dump. Get absolutely everything out of your head that needs to happen this week. Client deliverables, team meetings, marketing tasks, that dentist appointment, the birthday gift you need to buy for your kiddos birthday party he's attending next week. All of it. Don't organize it, just dump it onto paper onto a note on your phone. This clears your mental clutter so you can actually see what you're working with. Then you're gonna reality check your priorities for three minutes. So this is where my reality check method comes in. You're looking at everything you just dumped and you ask yourself what actually matters versus what just feels urgent. Circle or highlight the three things that will truly move your business or life forward this week. Not 10 things, definitely not 20 things, but three things when everything feels important, this reality check helps you see what genuinely is a priority versus what's just noise. Take about two minutes to schedule in those top three things into your calendar, so you're putting those three priorities into your calendar, blocking time for them before everything else fills up your week. This type of weekly planning is for business owners who understand that if it's not scheduled, it's not gonna happen. So that revenue generating client work, schedule it, strategic business planning, schedule it that important personal commitment, schedule it, for the next two minutes. Identify your flexibility points. Where can you adjust? If life throws you a curve ball and spoiler alert, it probably will. Maybe Thursday afternoon is light enough that you could move something if you needed. Maybe you have buffer time built in around certain meetings. Knowing your flexibility points prevents a total schedule collapse when something unexpected happens, and usually something always happens. When you start to feel like, I'll do this later tonight, and suddenly it's 10:00 PM on a Sunday and you are just too tired, I want you to think about building the Sunday planning routine and something you already do. Maybe it's Sunday afternoon while your kids are napping. Maybe it's Sunday morning coffee. Pick a time and stick with it for four weeks until it becomes automatic. The biggest obstacle is thinking that you need a perfect planning system with color coded calendars and fancy tools. You don't. A simple notebook works phone's notes, app works too. The system that you'll use for 10 minutes every Sunday beats any elaborate system you abandon. By week two, when resistance shows up and you start to think, I literally don't have 10 minutes. Remember this, you are not saving time by skipping your Sunday planning. You are just moving the chaos to Monday morning when you'll have even less mental capacity to handle it. Those 10 minutes on Sunday prevent hours of scattered reactive work all week long. The women in the Growth Collective who've made this a consistent habit report something powerful. They feel like they're running their week instead of their week running them. This shift alone is worth 10 minutes of your time on Sunday. One of my clients who's a small business owner, managing a team of two contractors, told me that this Sunday reset routine changed her relationships with Mondays completely. She used to dread her Monday mornings. They felt like she was getting hit by a Mack truck. Now, she actually feels ready because she already knows what matters. And the power of preventing overwhelm before it starts, instead of trying to recover from at midweek is key. Here's what I want you to remember from today, Monday morning. Chaos is optional. It's your choice. Starting your week, feeling behind and overwhelmed is a choice you're making on Sunday night. Even if it doesn't feel like a choice. When you invest 10 minutes on Sunday to reality, check your priorities and plan your week, you are choosing calm over chaos. You are not weak for needing a plan. You are strategic, and the most successful entrepreneurs aren't the ones who wing it. They're the ones who know what matters before the week tries to tell them what matters. This approach to preventing overwhelm before it actually starts is exactly what I help entrepreneurs through in my Growth Collective membership. If you want ongoing strategies like this plus a community of entrepreneurs who get it, please check in the show notes for the link to read more about my growth collective. My dollar a day business support membership, where we seriously tackle real challenges like Chaotic Mondays together. When you stop letting your Monday plan your week and you start planning it yourself, everything becomes clear. So my challenge to you is this coming Sunday, set aside 10 minutes. And plan your week. Follow me on Instagram at exclusively Cindy, for more strategies like this. And remember, you've got this.

Thanks for spending these few minutes with me today. Remember, overwhelm isn't permanent. It's simply your brain's way of saying pause and take a little reality check. If this was helpful, you'll love my weekly email tips where I share the systems that keep me and hundreds of other entrepreneurs on Track Link in the show notes. If you got value in today's episode, please share it with another entrepreneur who needs that reminder. If you're loving the show, I'd be so grateful if you could leave me a quick review. It helps other overwhelmed entrepreneurs find us. Make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss your weekly dose of clarity. For more resources and to connect with me, visit exclusively cindy.com. Until next time, remember you've got this.