From TGIF To… Enjoying Mondays

TGIF (Thank God it’s Friday) is a common salutation in the United States. In fact, it is so notorious that even a restaurant chain got named after it!

Come Mondays, let’s face it, the mood is different for the majority of us. However, what is likely different among many of us is the “recovery” time from “off work” to “work“. Some seem to be jumping right back where things got left off only two days earlier, while others seem to be slowly or permanently in recovery mode.

If you struggle with Mondays, give the following tips a try to start the week enthusiastically:

• Acknowledge the feelings. If it’s one of those Mondays where you feel like you don’t want to get out of bed, ask yourself why. Is it because you are putting an end to a wonderful weekend with family or friends? Is it because your week was very challenging and the weekend wasn’t enough to rest? All those can be normal feelings. But whatever it is, be intentional about how you spend your weekends so your reservoirs for family time, friendships, fun, rest,..get filled up.
• See the big picture. Your work provides for paying bills, but very likely also provides for an opportunity to contribute to society in an unique way. If you are a construction worker, you might see your role as building homes where new memories will be created. If you are an educator, you are obviously having a critical role in shaping a country’s young generation.
• Think rewards. The word “labor” comes from Latin labor or “toil, exertion, hardship”. You can choose to see work as such, or you can choose to see work as an enabler of what brings satisfaction, leisure and growth for yourself and your family.
• Set up priorities and goals for the week ahead. When you know what needs to get tackled, how complex or long your to-do list for the week is, you will engage faster in an action mode, productivity and urgency having been awaken.
• Schedule action fast. The earlier you force yourself to be productive with an early Monday morning call, meeting or delivery, the easier you will force yourself to transition from weekend to work week. In other words, stop the pity party and start making progress towards your deliverables.
• Get excited. Even if you may not feel like it, there must be something about your week that is remotely or utterly exciting. Even if your Monday morning mood may question the definition of excitement, challenge yourself to identify those moments or activities for the week ahead, that when thinking about them objectively and gratefully, are, after all, exciting. You may see a training or a travel as a taxing activity or you may see it as an opportunity to learn new things and expand your professional network.

Wanting for the weekends to get longer is an absolutely normal feeling no matter our professions, roles and chapters in life. We are not robots to work 24/7 so don’t supress that feeling. Embrace it by coming back on Mondays with a renewed commitment to do it all over again after a productive workweek. If you are giving those tips a try, let me know how it goes or what works for you in the comments below.