Make MONDAY Great Again: 7 Best Tips to Get Start Your Week Off

Photo: Vanna

Mondays are INEVITABLE. THE MONDAY BLUES? Turns out, they don’t have to be, week off is not such a big deal.

Research conducted on the subject of the Monday Blues gives us a variety of intriguing information—from the fact that people’s moods are not any lower on Monday compared to other days, to the theory that it’s not Mondays we’re reacting to but change, as we transition into the workweek, according to a New York Times article, “Mondays Aren’t As Blue As We Think.”

As you gear up for the busy fall season, try our 7 tips to start your week off in a healthier way:

1. Save energy for your weekends

A lot of people work themselves into the ground over the week, leaving themselves nothing more than a two-day couch potato on the weekend. Do whatever you can to avoid this—you want to spend Saturday and Sunday with enough energy to actually do fun things and have a functioning mind that can think creatively about work and your life. A couple of habits to cozy up to:

#Do you ever stay at work for an extra hour or two trying to “finish something up,” when in truth you work in circles and don’t accomplish anything super meaningful? Stop doing that.

#If you’re not actively moving your project or the business forward in any significant way and it’s well after 5 p.m., call it quits. Save your energy for the next day. Think of it like exercise: Those two extra miles you run today might put you over the edge so you can’t run tomorrow.

Photo: The New York Times

2. Plan for fun.

An easy way to turn Mondays around is to make them the day you commit to fun plans for later in the week. Schedule a night out with friends, a farmers’ market meet-up, or even a binge-watch of your favourite show.

Regardless of the activity, just thinking about the good times in store for you later in the week will be an instant pick-me-up, says Ettus. “Half the enjoyment of any activity is anticipating it, which is why it’s important to have things on your calendar you can look forward to,” she says.

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3. Make a Monday to-do list—on Friday.

The end of the week may be caused to celebrate, but don’t make it official until you’ve written a to-do list for Monday. Everything you need to accomplish next week will be top of mind, so it makes sense to capture it at this time, Real Simple cites.

But there’s another reason. “If you start the week without this list, you’ll have to brainstorm on Monday morning about the lingering projects from last week, which could be tough when you’re sluggish.

Photo: The Leaf by Nutrisystem

You’ll already be starting off a step behind,” says Samantha Ettus, a Los Angeles–based entrepreneur and the author of The Pie Life: A Guilt-Free Recipe for Success and Satisfaction. With this list waiting on Monday, you may be more productive and have an easier time focusing. Check off a few easy tasks to start, and then dig into your most challenging task as quickly as possible. “If it’s hanging over you,” says Ettus, “the day will be that much more of a drag.”

4. Use the weekend to get ahead

Super ambitious professionals use their weekends to advance their careers and businesses. With less structured (and uninterrupted) days, there’s time for creative thinking, brainstorming, and problem-solving.

Also, not to step on your work-life balance commitment (we’re all for it), but if you left work on Friday with a tsunami of work breathing down your neck, tucking in a few hours of work on an uninterrupted Saturday afternoon might be just what you need to feel good about starting your workweek.

5. Don’t waste your Sundays

Isn’t it crazy that we can spend so much time on Sunday dreading Monday? Here are two very different ways to spend your Sunday evenings:

#Spend a few hours planning your Monday. For some people, diving into their workweek on Sunday evening is a highly productive and satisfying use of their time. For managers and leaders, you give yourself a leg up on everything that meets you Monday morning, and you can see what’s expected of your team. There’s an incredible amount of time wasted on Mondays simply catching up on where you left off the previous week. You can avoid hours of this if you prepare on Sunday evening. And you’ll wake up Monday morning feeling calm.

#Plan some evening fun. For some of us, Sunday evenings are sacred do-nothing nights. But if you schedule an early dinner with friends, a movie date, or an evening picnic at a park, then you give yourself a positive focus for the day.

Photo: Dreamtimes

6. On Monday, pace yourself

You don’t have to move mountains or work a 12-hour day. A week is like a long-distance event. Go out too hard, you’ll be spent by Thursday. According to Liquid Planner, as an incentive, plan something fun on Monday—lunch out with a colleague, splurge on a favourite coffee drink, little easy things. It doesn’t take much to perk up a mood.

7. Don’t give in to the Monday story

If, as the New York Times article suggests, Blue Mondays are a myth, then try an experiment. Pretend you love Mondays. When the anxiety creeps in on Sunday, tell yourself you’re perfectly OK with everything. See what happens if you create a new belief system for yourself about Mondays. Because if you really think about it—Mondays are nothing more than another day of the week, where anything can happen, even greatness.

For more smart and helpful tips for your daily life, check out KnowInsiders regularly!

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