Follow a Sunday Ritual
Tips: Time Management, Scheduling, & Productivity September 26th. 2007, 12:59pmIn How to Win at College, I emphasized a simple, but surprisingly effective piece of advice: Create a Sunday Ritual. I learned this trick from the superstars I interviewed for the book, and quickly put it into regular practice in my own life. Now, I couldn’t imagine getting through the week without it…
The Perfect Sunday Ritual
Here’s the idea: Friday and Saturday are a time to be social. Sunday morning and afternoon is a time for you to regroup, get organized, and get prepared for the upcoming week. To accomplish this, you need a Sunday ritual.
A good Sunday ritual consists of the following:
- Immediately after waking up, go grab a big breakfast (realistically, considering that last night you were out partying, this is more likely to be a brunch). Do this on your own, with strong coffee, and a copy of the Sunday Times (or, anything else that is both mentally stimulating and completely unconnected to any schoolwork). Take your time. Spend an hour.
- Swing by the nearest library. Spend 20-30 minutes to review your calendar and to-do lists. Get a feel for what work you need to get done this week. What deadlines are looming? What personal projects have fallen fallow? If you follow the GTDCS method (or something similar), this is the time to assign specific work to the specific days of the week. Make sure you also set aside around three hours of work to get done today. Preferably select something intellectual but also non-intimidating, such as catching up on reading assignments.
- Clear your head. This might involve going for a quiet walk. Or, hangover permitting, hitting the gym. Conclude with a snack that will boost energy.
- Settle into the most deserted possible library on campus. (At this point, it will be in the early to mid-afternoon) Taking quick breaks every 50 minutes, efficiently plow through your three hours of work for the day.
- Conclude by sketching your Monday schedule. It’s important for your stress levels that you feel like you have a detailed plan for the next day. Now, clear all work thoughts from your brain. Have dinner with your friends. Spend the evening doing whatever it is that you like doing. You’re ready for the new week.
The Power of the Sunday Ritual
A consistent Sunday ritual does wonders for the week to follow. It’s a crucial buffer between the debauchery of the weekend and the grind of the work week.
Something about spending some alone time, making a schedule, and getting some significant work done (but not too much), really helps you calm down and gets your mind and body to a place where they can handle a new, intense week. I swear by my Sunday ritual. If you want a simple change that will eliminate a significant amount of stress in your student life, I recommend you do too.




September 26th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
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September 27th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Sunday was always one of my favourite days at university for focusing. I’d try to get up about 6-7am (even if I’d only got to bed at 2am), go for a brisk walk to the shop to buy the Sunday papers, get my laundry washed while I read the papers, walk to the library to check e-mail and quietly study for an hour (you’re so right about using the most deserted possible place), head back to my room and spend another hour or two focusing on the week ahead and working on any notes and essay writing that I wanted to deal with.
It was an amazing feeling to get this every Sunday. You’re right…it really is a great time to regroup, organise and prepare. Almost nobody would be around until about midday, when the first wave of students started getting out of bed.
They didn’t know what they were missing!
September 27th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Our library opens at 12pm which means, you’ll never be alone there on sunday
September 27th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Julian, you use the word “library” singular. But there are often smaller, department specific libraries scattered around campus. One for the engineers. One for the music department. Etc. That’s where you’ll find your concentration gold mine…
October 18th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Excellent, now to find the motivation to get there and stay there as long as I need.
October 29th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
[...] Once it’s up and running, the system is simple. You access your inbox all the time, so simply shooting off an e-mail with a question you don’t understand is an easy habit to adopt. Similarly, the processing of these questions is an easy addition to a weekly review. Do this, for example, as part of your Sunday ritual. [...]
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:38 am
habits are hard to change when it is ingrained but I’ve found that with effort, determination and follow through, the results often surprise me, especially when it is in the form of a report card.
January 25th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
[...] Follow a Sunday Ritual [...]
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February 18th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
[...] related productivity posts on: accomplishing more by doing less, using a productivity-free day, implementing a Sunday ritual, and calculating your churn rate. If you like what you see, consider subscribing to the [...]
February 21st, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Sounds like great advice, except for one problem: I go to church on Sunday mornings (from 11-12). Any tips for how I should work that in, or should I just switch my review day to Saturday?
February 21st, 2008 at 3:35 pm
@Coleman:
What about doing the ritual before or after church? I could imagine that attending services could be a great piece of the relaxing, re-connecting, and re-focusing that make a good Sunday ritual work.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:42 pm
[...] the post Follow A Sunday Ritual: A good Sunday ritual consists of the [...]
April 20th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
[...] a book that you actually want to read. Make it a part of your Sunday ritual if you’d like (Follow a Sunday Ritual by Cal Newport).5. Play an [...]
September 19th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
[...] school. In college, it will be of great interest to you (reference – Cal Newport’s “Follow A Sunday Ritual“). The work day on the other hand is to try to get your work back in rolling. You’ll [...]
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:02 am
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November 19th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
[...] a fair bit recently, and one of the things Cal Newport really recommends doing is establishing a sunday ritual to set you in good stead for the week ahead: taking some time for yourself to do a bit of work, [...]
January 10th, 2009 at 4:22 am
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March 1st, 2009 at 8:58 pm
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March 12th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
[...] the only one who made the most of this valuable time. Cal Newport has long been an advocate of a ‘Sunday Ritual’. It’s great to get up as early as possible on a Sunday (even if it had been an eventful [...]
October 27th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
[...] I spent my day developing a Sunday Ritual in order to help me refocus and prepare for the upcoming weeks. After a good breakfast, I went to [...]
November 6th, 2009 at 4:31 am
[...] [[Adopt a student work day, take Saturday off, and follow a Sunday ritual.]] [...]
November 14th, 2009 at 2:07 am
Hey Cal,
I’m a physiotherapy student and I’ve been trying to implement the advice you give in your blog and the red book. It’s been hard since I’m a bad procrastinator but there have been some positive changes and I’m happy about that.
I really enjoyed this post because it shows that everyone regardless of age should learn how to study properly. I hope that in the future you could feature how a student taking a technical course without maths employ the straight-A method. Currently I am making quick-draw questions to memorize facts and using the storytelling method to describe how the body functions. It would be nice if I could read about how a real-life example studies for a similar type of course.
November 14th, 2009 at 2:09 am
Oops.. Posted my comment on the wrong post. It was for the on on Jay.
December 6th, 2009 at 4:22 am
Great . Through your advice and practicing help me out of work-life , stay focus, and I have more time to relax
I’ve thought about time to social and fresh time for a week. This post is excellent .
Thanks so much
January 5th, 2010 at 2:26 am
at coleman:
I go to church around 5 on sunday, but I suggest just using the afternoon church service as a break before you began, as a relaxing hour instead of going for a walk.
that could work maybe.
January 11th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Cal,
that suggestion works not for me . I don’t do any work on a Sunday except perhaps a bit of planning. For me, there is a good reason why sunday is called the Sabbath. My ritual is getting up late, reading the Sunday papers, rest, reconnecting with my family and friends….. and going to church on Sunday evening. I work hard enough from Monday to Saturday as it is….nope…this suggestion is a fail for me…
January 24th, 2010 at 9:37 am
Hey Cal,
I have a dance class on Sundays at 12 pm, right in the middle of my day. Is there any way I can implement your schedule to fit this in?
March 19th, 2010 at 3:09 am
[...] For example, for the above task I would record something like: Errand: buy thankyou card This SNA would be put on my calendar for Thursday which is the day I collect all my errands and try to do them all at once. The TASK of sending the card is nowhere to be seen on my to-do list. This stays hidden on my task list which is only looked at once a week during my weekly review. [...]
March 19th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Hi,
Just a question, having a schedule and all is great but having a girlfriend changes it all, how do you allocate enough time to her but also doing all the scheduling and block work that you recommend? I am at Mcgill and spend around 5 nights a week at my girlfriends this makes blocking a schedule or have a Sunday ritual virtually impossible. any suggestions?
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:50 pm
First of all, you can certainly still do a Sunday Ritual. Just leave your girlfriend for a little while each Sunday morning (the horror!)
For the blocking, consider a student workday : that is, building a schedule where you efficiently work from morning to dinner, so your evenings are usually free. Treat it like a job. See your girl after the job. Great motivation to stay focused.
March 24th, 2010 at 11:37 am
[...] to the challenge? Try adding a Sunday Ritual to your [...]
April 27th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Any suggestions for students who are married and have a child, how must spend Sunday with them,but in critical need to have Sunday Ritual?
June 19th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
[...] Semester 2011 I took some good advice from Cal Newport and starting doing a Sunday ritual to help me get my brain ready for the week ahead. Between [...]
February 7th, 2012 at 4:36 am
[...] I read Study Hack’s article about Sunday rituals, in which he raises several great points that I immediately agreed [...]