Does the start of the week trigger anxiety, sadness, or overwhelming stress? According to a recent survey by Monster, 77% of Americans suffer from Monday morning blues. In fact, 76% of people start feeling the Monday morning blues on Sunday! Even if you love your job, but especially if you don’t, the Monday morning blues are a reality of life…so we thought.
So, how can you beat (or avoid) the Monday blues?
1. Prepare for Monday on Friday
To help combat that Monday morning anxiety, be sure to leave yourself as few dreadful tasks as possible on Friday afternoon. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t be preparing for Monday on the weekends. Give yourself time to recharge and practice work-life balance.
2. Get enough sleep and wake up early.
Go to be a little earlier on Sunday so that you can wake up on Monday morning feeling well-rested. Take time to recover from a busy weekend.
3. Plan your day
Take time to settle in on Monday morning. When you plan you Monday, mix in easy tasks with more difficult or stressing ones. Start with tasks like clearing out your inbox, cleaning off your desk, or other small tasks you can do to take time to wake up and settle in.
4. Pace yourself
Knowing that Mondays are traditionally busy days at the office, a good strategy is to keep your Monday schedule as clear as possible or try to pace it out so you don’t feel burnt out by 10 am. Pace your activities and tasks throughout the day.
5. Be positive
Your Monday morning attitude is up to you! Being positive starts before you even get to work. To pump yourself up on the way to work, listen to your favorite song or podcast. When you do get to the office, keep your complaining to yourself because your mood can bring someone else’s down. Creating or contributing to a culture of complaining is no way to improve your attitude.
6. Shuffle your schedule
Is there a specific task that you dread doing on Monday? Can you move your deadline to Tuesday or shift a meeting to later in the day? Even mixing up your monotonous schedule can help your Monday blues.
