How I Learned to Love Mondays

The start of the working week, the end of the weekend. Monday is certainly a day that gets a lot of stick and I can totally understand why, but what if I told you that there were a few little tricks to help you make Mondays great again. Over the years I have learnt a few things about embracing the hated day and Monday has even become one of my favourite days of the week. I know, can you believe it! Today I thought that I would share some of my secrets to loving the day that so many of you dread. It is time to learn to love Monday! Let’s dive straight in…

It is important to remember that having a great Monday, or any working day for that matter, doesn’t just mean starting when the alarm goes off and trying to make the most of the day itself (although that is a great place to start). In fact, one of the key ingredients to having a great Monday is making sure that you make the most of your weekends and free time.

If you fill your free time with fun and get stuff done then I can almost guarantee that you will feel less of a sinking feeling at the start of every new week. Why? Because you will know that you have made the most of the free time you had and really enjoyed it. By having a productive weekend, sorting out life admin, meeting up with friends etc. you will feel ready for work on Monday, without knowing in the back of your mind that there are things you should  have done/should be doing. Also, if you make exciting plans for your weekends and know what you want to do then you will go into Monday excited for the next weekend and this will spur you on to get there. Fun plans = happy worker = productive worker! You see what I’m saying?

On the same note, as well as having the BEST time you can at the weekend, it is important to allow yourself a pocket of time to prepare yourself for the week. Before you say wait a minute you told me to enjoy my weekend and have fun, I don’t mean you need to spend the whole of Sunday afternoon slaving over endless emails and schedules. Ain’t nobody got time for that! However, spending just 15 minutes in the evening looking over you’ve got going on in the week ahead and taking some time to write a single list means that you will go into Monday feeling in control. You will be ready to take on whatever challenges that week has to throw at you.

No-one wants to be in a Monday morning panic, as I so often used to be! You know the one where you spend too long organising (I am definitely guilty of this!) when you are supposed to be working, which means you get behind and spend the whole day trying to catch up. Nightmare. I mean it is stressing me out just writing about it. Sunday evening planning will save you from that dreaded feeling and allow you to sit down on Monday ready for the week ahead. Don’t believe me, why not try it for yourself?

This is more of a long term fix, as I know that you can’t always be in a job you love – that’s a whole other ball game really. However, one of the key things to enjoying your Monday is loving what you do. Ideally you want a job that (most of the time) doesn’t even feel like work because you love it so much, now wouldn’t that make for the perfect Monday. This kind of job is something that I’m sure a lot of us are working towards and I implore you to keep working towards your dreams. As they say, nothing worth having comes easy.

In terms of my job, I am currently really enjoying it and it makes Mondays a dream because I am excited to see what we will be working on that week. Need some inspiration to help you reach your dream job? One of my favourite quotes (love a good quote!) on this topic is as follows…

Let’s talk about this for a minute, because I think this is the reason that most people ‘hate’ Mondays… because everyone else does. Don’t worry though, just because everyone around you hates mondays, it doesn’t mean that you have to! It really is that simple and for me it was a case of, as well as implementing the steps above, simply choosing to love Mondays because I want to. As I have said, Mondays are now one of my favourite days of the week and one of the main reason for that is because I want them to be.

So, why is choosing to love the first day of the week a great option? Mondays are basically the equivalent of new years day, but every week. A fresh start and a new opportunity to shine & get to where you want to be. They are the day when you can get ahead and they are the day that sets the tone for the rest of the week, so why not love it and have a great week? I know it sounds too easy and yes, it did take time for me to break out of the cycle of hating Mondays for no reason, but trust me, it was so worth it and I urge you to give it a go!

There we have it, my top tips to help you all to love Mondays as much as I do! This is one of the best lifestyle changes/choices that I have made over the past few months and I hope that this will help some of you guys have happier and more productive weeks ahead. What is your favourite day of the week?