How to Do a Weekly Relationship Check-In (Template Included)

Most couples have conversations about logistics every day — who's making dinner, what's on this weekend, did you call the landlord. But deeper conversations? The ones about how you're actually doing, what you need, where you're headed together? Those often happen only when something goes wrong.

A weekly relationship check-in flips that pattern. It's a short, intentional conversation — about 20-30 minutes — where you deliberately step out of autopilot and reconnect as partners, not just housemates or co-parents.

Why Weekly Check-Ins Work

The goal isn't therapy. It's maintenance. Just as you'd do a weekly review of your finances or a Sunday meal prep to set up the week ahead, a relationship check-in keeps small things from becoming big things.

Benefits couples report:

• Catching resentments before they calcify
• Feeling genuinely seen by their partner on a regular basis
• Making important decisions together rather than in reactive moments
• Having a dedicated space for the harder conversations — so they don't bleed into everything else

The Ground Rules

Before the template, a few non-negotiables:

• No phones. This is 20 minutes. They'll survive.
• No problem-solving during the sharing part. Listen first, fix later.
• Not after a fight. Check-ins work best when you're both calm.
• Same time each week. Sunday evening and Friday after dinner are popular choices.
• It's not a performance review. The tone should be warm, curious, and safe — not evaluative.

The Weekly Check-In Template

Work through these five questions together. Each partner answers before moving on:

1. What was your high and low this week? Not just about the relationship — your whole week. This reconnects you to each other's inner life before you get to "us."

2. What did I do this week that made you feel loved or appreciated? This is intentionally positive-first. It reinforces the behaviors you both want more of, and it's a genuinely nice thing to hear.

3. Is there anything that bothered you or left you feeling disconnected this week? The harder question. The ground rule here: the listener just receives it — no defending, no explaining. Just: "Thank you for telling me."

4. What do you need from me in the week ahead? Practical, actionable, forward-looking. This is where you make small requests: more quality time, help with something specific, a little more patience.

5. What's one thing we can look forward to together this week? End on something connecting. A dinner, a walk, a movie night — anything that gives you both something to anticipate together.

Making It Feel Natural, Not Clinical

The biggest reason check-ins fail is that they start to feel like a meeting. A few things that help:

• Do it somewhere comfortable — the couch, a restaurant, a walk
• Keep it conversational — the questions are prompts, not a script
• Celebrate consistency — doing it imperfectly every week beats doing it perfectly once a month

Build the Muscle with Daily Micro Check-Ins

Weekly check-ins are powerful — but they're easier when you've been practicing connection all week. Lovestruck is designed for exactly this: daily questions that both partners answer, pings that signal you're thinking of someone, and a shared space for the small moments that make the big conversations easier.

Think of the daily questions as reps. The weekly check-in is the workout. Together, they build the communication fitness that long-term relationships actually require.

The couples who do this consistently say the same thing: it doesn't feel like work anymore. It just feels like them.