Pause + Process: 6 Prompts To Help Process Your Week
For many, work-life actually feels busier than when we were in offices and able to work in shared spaces and that’s meant the living-for-the-weekend mentality has been amplified, which is precisely why taking time to pause and process what’s gone on, at the end of the day or week, is super-important for our mental wellbeing.
For some of us, the commute was our time to decompress but now we have to make time to do this in other ways otherwise everything starts to feel a bit blurred.
The purpose of these prompts is to allow you the headspace to process what you’ve done, achieved, experienced and felt over the last 5-7 days. They invite self-inquiry so a chance to tune in to how you are feeling on all levels; physically, emotionally, mentally. Every week will likely to spark different answers and with them comes a fresh perspective!
Grab a pen and your notebook, take some slow deep breaths and ask yourself how has this week been for you?
What went well this week? (family/work/lifestyle)
Most of us will immediately start thinking about what went well with work which is perfectly natural if a large chunk of your day is spent in work-mode however something may have gone well which wasn’t work-related so have a think about your family life, your lifestyle, your finances and even your social life, you might even have something to write for everything!
This prompt is to get you thinking about what was important to you.
What didn’t go so well?
Possibly an easier one to answer but go easy. Write down whatever comes up and then read back over them to check if you weren’t being too harsh on yourself. Not everything you do will go to plan and many of these things are out of our control. This prompt is also to get you thinking about what was important to you just in a different way.
How did that make you feel? (emotionally, physically, mentally)
Take another three grounding breaths as you ask yourself this so you can see what comes up for you. It may be a physical sensation, an emotion or the words may be tumbling out on the page in which case go with it. These prompts are for your eyes only, no need too filter what you are thinking or for writing neatly!
What challenged you this week?
If it doesn’t come up straight away think about ‘challenge’ is a good word for the thing that most felt uncomfortable this week, was different to what you were used to or was completely new to you. It may be related to prompt #2 or #3.
What are you most proud of? (for yourself)
This one is all you. It feels great to be proud of friends and loved ones however make this all about you. Take some time to think back through the week, it might even feel like something relatively small in the grand scheme of things however it’s important we take the time to remember we get to be proud of ourselves.
What will you do differently next week? (family/work/lifestyle)
This one is my favourite because everything you’ve already written comes into play.
What went well and what didn’t go so well, will show you what was important to you and helps you see what you want to focus your energy on.
What challenged you might give you an opportunity to change something next week, and thinking about what you were most proud of might inspire you to celebrate your wins every day, no matter how small!
For me, this is the self-check-in I need in order to ease out of my week and into my weekend.
I hope this is as helpful for you as it has been for me.
Happy Friday friends,
Becki
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