You can sidestep the Monday blues and start your workweek on an upswing with these 10 tips PHOTO BY MATTHEW T. RADER ON UNSPLASH
Raise your hand if you sometimes dread Mondays and the entire workweek ahead of you. Many of you? I thought so. Mondays can be hard just getting out of your warm, cozy bed after a long weekend especially when it’s cold, gray and rainy. The more you dread the day, the worse you feel.
The Monday Blues
The Monday blues is a common experience that usually hits on Sundays when you start thinking about the new week—all the things that need to be done and how you will accomplish them. Studies show that Monday morning moods stay with you all day long because whatever you focus on expands. The more you focus on dread, the more it grows—nibbling away at you like torture from half a million cuts. Neuroscientists say this is based on the mind-body connection. The cells of your body constantly eavesdrop on your thoughts from the wings of your mind. When you have negative thoughts, your cells dump a biochemical cocktail creating dread. And studies show that your emotional state impacts your job performance and productivity.
10 Tips To Sidestep The Monday Blues
If you start the week with dread, it can create depression and/or anxiety of getting through more demands and deadlines. But if you broaden your perspective and consider possibilities, you can sidestep the Monday blues and start your week on an upswing. Here are 10 mindful tips that scientists call broaden-and-build that can help you widen your perspective from the narrow mental lens that creates dread:ADVERTISINGToday In: Leadership
1. Avoid Deep Diving. If you go swimming for the first time, you don’t dive in over your head on the first day. You wade in the shallow water to get acclimated to ease your mind. When possible, get in the habit of making Monday your shallow water day instead of deep dive day. Avoid over-scheduling yourself with huge challenges or adding additional responsibilities to your Monday calendar. Tackle as many of the unfinished tasks the previous week so your dread won’t feel so insurmountable when you start the next week. Sometimes the blues come from thinking about everything on your to-do list. Taking one step at a time prevents you from overwhelming yourself. Focus on the most important task, put the rest out of your mind and complete the one that needs immediate attention.
2. Make Mondays Adventure Days. There’s a thin line between excitement and dread (think bungee jumping). Instead of considering Mondays filled with expectations of problems to solve, turn that around and think of them as adventures. Expectations are premeditated resentments. When you frame work challenges as curious adventures (“I wonder if I will land that account”) instead of expectations (“If I don’t land that account, I’ll be upset”), it reduces dread because you’re not trying to solve a problem. It frees you from a premeditated mindset if your expectations aren’t met and lets you roll with nature taking its course. You could even ask yourself, “I wonder what interesting events will happen this week.
3. Avoid “Stinkin’ Thinkin’. Mother Nature designed your mind to overestimate threats and underestimate your ability to overcome them so you can survive. Neuroscientists call this the “negativity bias.” It takes three positive thoughts to offset one negative thought. Positive thoughts work in the opposite direction, helping you stack your Monday positivity deck. Look for the upside of a downside situation. Avoid blowing disappointments out of proportion. Look for gains in your losses. Focus on solutions instead of problems. And pinpoint opportunity in a challenge. Think of one thing—no matter how insignificant it might seem at first—to look forward to on Monday. It could be chatting with a favorite team member, helping a client you enjoy, the excitement of presenting a new idea to your manager or having lunch at your favorite restaurant. Plan to reward yourself at the end of the day with something fun.
4. Stop “Musturbation” and Embrace Your Choices. Usually the Monday blues hit because of your perspective. If you’re like most people, you have a relentless faultfinder living in your brain, ruling your mind and career. It bludgeons you with oppressive words that pressure you such as must, should, ought and have to: “I must win that contract; “I have to get that promotion”; “This project should be perfect.” When you’re aware of the oppressive voice (the psychologist Albert Ellis dubbed it “musturbation”), you can choose more empowering, less stressful words such as “I plan to;” “I want to;” or “I choose to.” Empowering self-talk eclipses the dread and lifts your mood. Remind yourself that you’re not a victim of your job. Mentally trace the choices you’ve made in your career. You chose the position you’re in, and you chose to work Monday through Friday. As you name all the other aspects about the job that you’ve chosen, you start to feel lighter, freer and more empowered over the oppressive thoughts.
5. Self-Soothe And Take Action. Pinpoint why you feel the Monday dreads. It could be the boss from hell, a negative coworker, work overload or boredom. Or it could just be rekindling your mojo. Whatever it is, go within and see if you can connect with the part of you that dreads going to work. Observe it as a separate part of you, instead of you—with objectivity much like you would notice a blemish on your hand. Talk to it like you would a best friend and express empathy for it. Unlike the old myths about the insanity of talking to yourself, the modern-day approach of talking to your inner parts is one of the best strategies for self-calming. As you separate from the dread, you notice a feeling of inner calm. Then take steps to change circumstances that reduce the dread.
6. Quiet Your Mind. The Monday blues happen when your mind is stuck in the future. You’re trying to solve a problem at the office or afraid you won’t be able to achieve a certain goal. Taking time out from the intrusive thoughts to quiet your mind with idle moments—such as a short five-minute meditation or contemplating some aspect of nature—brings your mind into the present moment and helps you unwind, clear your head and relax your mind, body and spirit.
7. Stay In Good Shape. Think of Monday mornings as the Olympics or the National Cup. Your physical and mental endurance at the start of the week hinges on being fit. Prepare yourself for Mondays by unpluging on weekends and taking care of your physical and mental health. Avoid long nights trying to hit deadlines, preparing for a big presentation or analyzing that endless task list. Prime yourself with good food, regular exercise and ample sleep. Avoid nicotine and use alcohol in moderation. Recharge your batteries and balance your work life with fun, leisure and time with friends and loved ones.
8. Break Routines. Break the monotony of rules, ruts and routines. Make sure you plan to take your breaks and lunch hour and stretch them into doing something different. Change scenery by getting outside even if it’s only for ten or fifteen minutes. Dine away from your desk in a park or a different restaurant. Consider giving your workstation a makeover.
9. H-A-L-T. The acronym H-A-L-T stands for “hungry, angry, lonely or tired.” This alert signal is a gentle reminder for you to stop, slow down and bring yourself back into balance when your mind starts to dread Monday morning: eat when hungry, let out your anger in a constructive way, call someone if you’re lonely and rest when tired.
10. Act “As If.” Acting as if is a powerful tool that says you can create outer circumstances by acting as if they’re already true. You give yourself to a certain performance as if it’s how you feel. When you act as if, the mood you pretend becomes a reality. When you dread an upcoming week, your body goes with the downturn of your feelings, making you feel worse. You might even hold your head down or slump when you walk. Making body adjustments—pulling your shoulders back, standing or sitting up straight or walking in a more expansive way—can pull you out of dread. Even smiling when you don’t feel like it can jumpstart a genuine smile and lift your mood for real. Scientists say your facial expressions influence your emotions by triggering specific neurotransmitters, the brain’s chemical messengers. When you smile, you feel good not just because it reflects how you feel, but the facial expression contributes to how you feel.
A Final Thought
Have any kind of Monday you want. But if you want to have a really great start to the week, regardless of the outer circumstances of your life, simply practice the 10 tips and act as if it’s a wonderful day, and it will become so.