There are certain things in life that are accepted as fact. One of these things – Mondays suck. It seems only natural, right? Who wants to trade the flexibility and freedom of the weekend for an all-too-long week of rising before the sun so you can go to work and be sequestered in your cubicle?
While nothing can make the prospect of starting a new week joy-inducing, you also shouldn’t allow yourself to become paralyzed by dread. If you look forward to your Monday morning the way some people look forward to a long overdue trip to the dentist, you’re creating a vicious cycle of negativity and sentencing yourself to week after week of despair.
Break out of this negative cycle. By making a conscious effort to start your week off on the right foot, you can improve your overall quality of life.
Make Sundays Magical
Going back to work on Monday is decidedly more difficult if you feel like your weekend time was ill-spent. Spend Sunday fueling up your motivation by doing something you truly want to do. If you want to spend your Sunday in your pajama pants binge-watching some streaming shows and eating your body weight in air-popped popcorn, so be it.
If, instead, you really want to go to the zoo and check out the perennially adorable penguins, give yourself that treat; after all, you only live once. With this supremely relaxing Sunday under your belt, Monday shouldn’t be quite as formidable.
Treat Yourself
If you and Mondays have a long and tumultuous past, you can’t expect yourself to warm up to this week-starter immediately. Start to improve your relationship by engaging in activities designed to lessen your dislike for this potentially dismal day.
Stop at your favorite coffee shop for a triple tall, skinny, extra foam caramel latte, or visit a donut shop for a fresh-from-the-oven glazed delight. Save these little pleasures for Monday only and you’ll soon find yourself associating the day, not with upset, but glee instead.
Actively Seek Positivity
For whatever reason, negativity is substantially easier to find than positivity. Nearly everyone can list one person with whom they work who does nothing but gripe and moan about their job every day.
Fewer people can list one person who consistently expresses gratitude for the work they do. Don’t let this cycle of negativity chew you up and spit you out. Instead, reject the negative and actively look for things you enjoy.
Talk to your co-workers about things you’ve done as part of your team of workers that truly make you proud. Remind yourself of the reasons why you go to work every day whenever you approach a particularly frustrating task, and you may be able to handle the pressure with less emotional upset.
Spread Positivity
Positivity can be as communicable as the common cold. If you don’t find your workplace a joyful place to spend your nine to five, do something about it.
Work to be positive. Say nice things just for the sake of being nice. Stop by co-workers’ desks and tell a joke or two. Bring in some cupcakes – with sprinkles. Arrange some after-work socialization activities to build relationships that will translate into the workplace.
While you won’t likely see negativity cease immediately, by making these small efforts over an extended period of time you can positively impact your environment, changing the mood from disconnected and morose to unified and positive.
End On A High Note
The quality of the end of your week will necessarily impact the start of the subsequent one. If your Friday is rife with disagreements and conflict, you and your co-workers will return to work on Monday upset and ready to re-enter the ring and hash it out.
When workers have a negative Friday, they don’t spend their hard-earned weekend recouping and refreshing. Instead, they spend it mentally rehashing the conflicts that pervaded the last day on the job – and return on Monday even more ready to rumble.
Make it a point to avoid Friday conflicts whenever you can. If you have to present information that you know won’t be popular or you need to have a difficult conversation with a co-worker or underling, save it until the next Tuesday or Wednesday to ensure that neither you nor anyone else impacted by the conflict has to suffer a weekend of stewing and experience a Monday march into battle.
