The Sunday Night Lesson Planning System That Cuts Prep Time in Half

The typical Sunday night routine is to start from scratch for every lesson. You open a blank document, search for resources, write objectives, and hope the week holds together. By the time you finish Wednesday's plan, it's midnight and Thursday is still blank.

The fix isn't working harder — it's batching. A system that front-loads the thinking (objectives and assessment) and back-loads the details (specific activities) saves time because you're making fewer decisions per lesson.

Block 1 (15 min): Write one objective per day for the week. Five objectives, one sentence each. This is the backbone of your week — everything else supports these.

Block 2 (20 min): Choose the core activity for each day. Not every detail — just the main thing students will do. A close reading, a lab, a practice set, a discussion. One activity per day.

Block 3 (15 min): Add assessment checkpoints. Which days need an exit ticket? Where will you do a quick check? Plan the Friday formative assessment.

Block 4 (10 min): List materials and prep. What needs to be printed, copied, or set up? Make one list for the week so you can batch prep on Monday morning.

Generate all five daily plans in one sitting. Enter your weekly topic, and LessonCraft produces structured plans with timing, differentiation, and assessment. You edit and refine instead of building from scratch, turning a 3-hour session into under an hour.