Are you the type of person who is excited and ready to roll Monday morning? Do you look forward to your work week even when relaxing and enjoying your downtime on the weekends? Not everyone is. The “Sunday Scaries” concept has taken off as a cute way to describe that not great feeling of doom as your weekend comes to an end. Stress and anxiety tied to your work hits hard right at the weekend and work week transition. But they don’t have to drag you down. Instead, start your week off right without the doom and dread. Here are 5 ways to feel better about Mondays.
1. Create Transition Time
Jumping from one frame of mind into a different, more work focused frame of mind on Monday morning can be stressful. After a leisurely weekend, it takes time to prepare and rev up your mental engines. Creating or blocking off some intentional transition time first thing on Monday morning, or even last thing Sunday evening, can help you be more mentally prepared for the shift. Things to do in this time include writing out your to do list, prioritizing your tasks for the week, or even reviewing your goals or some inspirational reading to put you in a positive frame of mind.
2. Practice Gratitude
Find one thing about every day that makes you grateful for how your life is going. Positivity and gratitude can have a powerful impact on your overall happiness. While overloading on positivity to the point of ignoring big problems won’t work in your favor, remembering that not everything is terrible will put you in a much better frame of mind. So take the time at some point in your day, every day, to think of something that makes you happy. That little reminder that there is good in even tough situations can help you maintain a happy and healthy mind, even when the weekend comes to an end.
3. Nurture Work Friendships
One of the biggest indicators that it’s time to switch jobs is a lack of social connections in the workplace. Being a loner at work can really take its toll on your wellbeing and contentment, and make the transition from weekend to work week even more difficult. If you’re just not clicking with your coworkers it’s possible that your job isn’t the right fit, or that you haven’t put the effort in. Having a good social connection to support your productivity and long-term happiness at work is important. Make time to make and keep friends at work to help you enjoy your time more.
4. Maintain a Balance
While work does take up a big portion of your time during the work week, it shouldn’t take up all your time. Make sure you are making room for other things during the work week, such as exercising and socializing outside of the job. If you have non-work activities to look forward to during the week, then you will feel less dread as the weekend ends.
5. Go Easier on Yourself
Sometimes anxiety and stress at the start of the work week comes from internal pressure to be perfect on the job. Perfection is in most cases unachievable and certainly unsustainable. Good enough is most often what will make you happy. Figure out at what point your good enough state is capable of making you happy, and work to achieve that. Chasing perfection can be stressful and inevitably damaging to your self-worth and peace of mind. Learn when settling is healthy for your overall wellness. So take a step back on Sunday evening and remind yourself that you are enough, even if you’re not perfect.
6. BONUS – Join the All-Star Army!
If you can’t seem to shake the anxiety of a Monday morning, maybe the problem isn’t you. Maybe it’s the job. Join the All-Star team today and we can help you find a job hiring in Nashville, TN that you love!
