Editor’s note: this is a guest post from Edward Geddis, D.C., director of the Catalyst Wellness + Performance Center in Hyannis. Ted is a USA Triathlon as well as Ironman® certified coach, and often can be found on the beach at the start of NEEE’s Cape Cod races.

For myself, the week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday and obviously the mayhem that occurs will be wedged in between. One way I attempt to keep the mayhem at bay, well at least a little, and to do my best to keep my stress levels down is something I like to call the “Sunday Starter.”

As I said, my week does not truly start until Monday, but I like to do a little prep before it starts to hopefully help assure a good week ahead. Each Sunday evening, preferably after dinner and once everyone in the house has settled into a little quiet time, I like to take 15 minutes to myself: to review the week past and the week ahead.

The agenda is somewhat simple. First, I want to see what went well last week and what went, maybe, not-so-well. If so, how can I go about changing that?

Next — and I think most importantly — I look at my week ahead: the meetings, commitments, children’s activities. Then I look at my training schedule: especially the key workouts. That’s followed by a gathering of all the other, lesser important activities I hope to accomplish. I then go about moving around those less important activities: working out, washing the cars, tweaking my bikes, around the essentials of life, work and family.

My goal here is to avoid waking up on, say, Wednesday morning to suddenly realize that I have planned a two-hour bike followed by a 30 minute run immediately followed by three athlete phone calls, 10 patient visits and an evening commitment to attend my daughter’s high school senior awards ceremony. That’s how my stress level can shoot through the roof before 6am.

Instead, thanks to my Starter Sunday I have already looked at everything in advance and arranged as necessary. Sure, other surprises will pop up but basically, each day is known in advance and I’ve increased the likelihood that everything will go off without a hitch.

A little review and planning can go a long way and helps to integrate those secondary but essential aspects of life into an already crazy and hectic schedule — without increase stress and anxiety.

This week why not give the Sunday Starter a try and see how it works for you?