In an effort to avoid the ‘Sunday scaries’, your Sunday is often better spent doing meal preparations, to-do lists, and rest which allow you to be your most productive and focused self for the week ahead. In most cases, it should also include choosing your clothes for the work week. 

Whether you’ve tried it before or you have never considered it, weekly outfit prep is an easy way to save time and energy, just like all your other Sunday tasks. 

This type of activity can help you to tap into your creativity and encourage you to look through your wardrobe, use what you’ve got, and identify items that you have outgrown or forgot you had.

It’s a fairly simple process. Here’s how you can plan your outfits ahead:

Basic steps for planning your outfits ahead

• Go to your closet or rolling rack and make space for the outfits you will choose. 

• Choose items to build each outfit for each day of your work week.

• Inspect each item and check them for wrinkles, stains, holes, and pilling. Get rid of any pieces that are pilling, put any holey items in a tailor pile to adjust, and throw any stained items in the wash/dry clean pile. 

• Make a written or mental note of any wrinkled items to be ironed after you’ve pieced ttogether all your outfits. 

• For any pieces that you had to knock out, replace each with a new item. 

• Lastly, iron out the kinks:

This isn’t the most fun part, but it’s definitely a necessary part for your outfit. Wrinkles distract you and anyone you might run into during the day, so make sure to iron or steam them out to keep your look in tip top shape for each day of the week. 

Benefits of planning your work outfits

It provides a sense of security

If you often blame your outfit choice process on your lack of punctuality, planning ahead can help with that. 

Planning outfits ahead of time tends to ease any anxiety and stress that may manifest when choosing outfits on the day of. It can leave you with a feeling of ease knowing that your morning routine should run more smoothly because you would already know what you’ll wear and on what day. This is not foolproof because we live in a dynamic world where anything can happen such as your breakfast spilling or you spot a stain that you missed during preparation. However, for the most part, your mornings should be smoother.

You’ll figure out what you really like to wear

When you make it a habit to plan your outfits in advance, you will eventually learn more about the style that you go for. You will see a trend of which outfits and pieces you gravitate toward the most. 

So, if you have a favourite shirt or jacket because they add to your confidence level, you will automatically choose them in situations where you may need an extra boost. 

Actively engaging in this process may even help you when shopping for new clothes. You know what you like and what you gravitate towards, so the shopping process may become smoother for you.

You’ll improve your routine

Let’s say that you used to wind down and mentally prepare for the work week ahead by watching your favourite movie or binging your favourite television show. 

Yes, that may relax you but that does not necessarily help you to get ahead of those ‘Sunday scaries’ and the Monday blues. Planning ahead helps. 

You would be surprised to see how much time it can take to choose your outfit and prepare them for work. So, get it out of the way from now and consider it as one less task or series of tasks you need to complete in order to have a fulfilling and productive week. 

You could go as simple as just putting items of clothing together to see the image you want to portray or you could go further by pressing, hanging up, or laying out your outfits for each day.

It makes mornings feel brand new

If you have trouble with time management or hitting snooze one too many times in the morning, preparing your outfits in advance will prevent you from spiraling and starting your day on a chaotic note. 

Instead of waking up earlier to prepare on the day of or rushing around and leaving a pile of clothes on the floor or your bed, you can sit and take your extra 15 to 20 minutes having breakfast and reflecting on your day ahead.

So, this Sunday, engage in activities that your future self will thank you for. Prepare your work outfits in advance and give yourself a little extra time to sleep or even time to have your breakfast Monday through to Friday.

RELATED Five ways to beat the ‘Sunday Scaries’

RELATED This week: try making your bed and change your life

Send feedback to [email protected]