Retreat Your Way to Success: How To Take A Weekly Retreat

Posted on 12.02.08 in Faith Family Productivity and there are

Photo by amanky
Last week I shared about my Daily Retreats. My mornings alone help me to tune my heart to God, get His plans for my day and organize my activities so I can get more done with less effort. But a daily retreat isn’t enough for me. I need to step back every week and evaluate what I’ve done and what I’m doing to make sure I stay on track.

Today I want to tell you about my Weekly Retreat.

Why I Take A Weekly Retreat

I am very easily distracted. Remember this? Um. Yeah.

I’ve learned that I need to step back regularly and evaluate if what I’m doing is actually what I should be doing. My daily retreat helps a bit, but I usually just focus on the day at hand during that time.

I need a larger chunk of time when I can look at my overall activities and decide whether they line up with my goals.

So every Saturday morning from 5:30am - 10:30am I go to a local coffee shop to plan my week.

I LOVE this time. This is my lifeblood. An opportunity to step back, review what I did last week and will do next week. An extended period of peace and quiet when I can focus, plan and brainstorm.

I really enjoy being up and out so early that time itself is a point of conversation with the other poor souls who have also forsaken the comfort of their beds for a greater purpose. I love watching the sunrise from a cozy chair with my journal in one hand and a cup of tea in the other.

Mostly, I love how productive I am and that my family benefits from my time away.

What I Do

Here’s a breakdown of what I do:

• 1. Menu Plan and Calendar Review (Here’s my post on menu planning.)


• 2. Create shopping list and put on my smart phone so that I’m all ready for the store


• 3. Plan Family Fun Night - theme and details


• 4. Small Group prayer and planning.


• 5. Blog Post Planning


• 6. Organize to-do list - Select projects to work on for the week and items that need to be completed.


• 7. Inbox zero - spend 30 minutes processing and completing emails

Where I Go

I start at a coffee shop at 5:30am and do as much as I can offline.

I usually spend a good portion of this time praying, journaling and brainstorming. The coffee shop I go to doesn’t have free wifi - which is perfect for me, because I’m too cheap to pay for wifi, so I’m forced to focus and work offline.

During this time, I also make a detailed plan of what I will work on for the morning. As I said before, I can get EASILY distracted, so I need to be very intentional when I get online.

Once I’ve done all I can do offline, I head to a breakfast spot with free wifi to reply to emails, write blog posts and work on web stuff. I rarely have several hours of completely uninterrupted time, so I do my best to complete each task before I move on. I try to plan everything to the point that I won’t have to think later. It’s all just written out for me.

How To Get Your Own Weekly Retreat

I have an amazing husband. He sacrifices sleeping in on Saturdays to take care of the kids so I can get away. I usually spend my first few minutes, praying the kids will sleep in for Jimmy…

I realize that not everyone has a husband who is willing or able to allow you to get away each week, so here are some ideas you might use to make sure you get time away.

1. Trade
Trade each week with another mom. One week, she watches your kids, the next week, you watch her kids.

2. Family
If you have family in town, pehaps they’d be willing to watch the kids one morning or evening each week.

3. Early Morning Cartoons
If there’s no one who can watch your kids, perhaps you could wake up early get breakfast all ready for the kids and queue up their favorite cartoons. You should be able to snag a couple hours this way.

Any other ideas out there?

In Conclusion

It’s so wonderful to start the weekend feeling focused, refreshed and prepared for the week to come.

What tips and ideas do you have to stay on track?

If you enjoyed this post, you might also want to read:
How To Take a Daily Retreat
How To Take a Yearly Planning Retreat
Weekly Planning Tips And My Weekly Overview Form

(This post is part of Works For Me Wednesday.)

The Comments:

Skip to comment form

Very cool—I am definitely enjoying this little series! I like the idea of taking some time to plan the week.

I’m a master at wasting time when I have so much I need to do, it’s mostly because when I do have a little time I don’t know what I should do.  I think your retreat is a great idea.  I’m going to try it, even giving up sleep, I am NOT a morning person!  And I’m going to use your to do list as a starting point.

i love how intentional you are with this time...i’m emailing a link to my hubby right now.  thanks for posting!

What a fabulous post! I could so use this. But I just have to find a place to go! I live in such small town, I’d have to drive 20 minutes to the nearest coffee shop. But your post has really set my mind to thinking what I could do similar to what you suggest…

Thank you.  You are a great encouragement to me at this time in my life.

Bekah,
I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I’m having fun writing it!

Kristy,
I TOTALLY relate. I seriously have to write out each thing I plan to do or I’ll get distracted. This planning time has been super helpful for me. I hope it is for you too.

Kerry,
Way to be proactive! I think moms are often afraid to take time for themselves...but it’s SO good for the whole family when we are refreshed.

Mindi,
You’re welcome!

What wonderful advice--you took that craving we all have for focused self-time and made it happen.  Good for you!

I love how you admitted the need to forego the wifi.  That’s definitely where I need to withdraw in order to get things done!  Any ideas?

I definitely need to plan something like this for myself. 

Merry CHRISTmas!
Sherry

this is fabulous. thanks for sharing it.

Kat, you are quite amazing, I must say.  I think this post is important for all peoples, not just moms.  I need to incorporate something like this into my schedule!  You would think that would be easy without a family, but it’s not!!  Thanks!!!

Lilia,
Any amazingness I have I learned from my college roomie…

You are my hero! I totally need to do this!

This is so great. Another thing thats good that similar that I do is a biweekly meeting with another mom. We’ve both found that we have a common passion for the women’s ministry at our church - and a desire to help it to grow. So we meet around 9pm after our kiddos go to bed (in the beginning we were both nursing babies and kind of had to wait until after bedtime!) and we’ll go to Starbucks or Applebee’s (their appetizers are half off after 9pm!) and we’ll brainstorm ministry ideas, share struggles and pray for our church and one another. Its been so great for both of us!

Wow, Kat, you are my hero.  Everything about your weekly retreat sounds wonderful to me.  One day,when I’m not a nursing mom, I will ask my husband to bless my with one of those! 

You are quickly becoming my hero. Wow. Weekly, huh? I’ve also got an amazing husband who would be glad to wake me up, kick me out of bed, start the car for me, hand me his credit card and send me on my bleary-eyed way. Why wait til the New Year - I’m starting this week. Thank you.

You can’t imagine how valuable your advice is but, my question is, how does a “pulsar” me do what a “linear” you to accomplish this?  lol!

Great ideas!  When my kids were little, I swapped a morning with another mom.  It was my time to head to the library where I couldn’t be guilted into doing dishes and laundry!

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

My Twitter Posts