It’s Monday morning. You’ve coasted through another beautiful, short-lived weekend. Now you’re back at the office—slow, cranky and out of focus. Sound familiar?
Don’t let it be this way. Mondays are not the enemy. They’re just as precious as Tuesday through Sunday, but need some special attention.
Anatomy of a Weekend
Weekends are by tradition everything your working life is not: adventure, leisure, home improvement and time with the family. They are meant to give you a well-deserved break from your career so you’re “recharged” and ready to go come Monday. Hardly the case, right?
What usually happens is you get so enraptured in the free time fun that you lose your mojo, so by the time Monday rolls around, you have to spend the rest of the work week trying to get it back. A classic case of one step forward, two steps back.
Adjusting Your Mindset
Returning to work on a Monday should be a seamless experience void of the classic post-weekend grumbles. Therefore, it’s best to think of your weekend not as an escape from work, but rather an adjustment to its pace.
The trick is to enjoy your weekends as you normally would—it’s not healthy or fair otherwise—but without losing significant focus on your desire to succeed (which is a common weekend trap).
Don’t buy into the notion that weekends are meant for purging the discipline or creativity or intellect of your working self. There are a lot crutches out there—like TV and binge drinking—which do nothing more than cloud your focus and delay your dreams indefinitely.
Working Without Working
All you need to maintain an edge is a small mental agenda. Find or create small pockets of time where you can reflect on this agenda. Utilize moments normally spent in idle thought, like right when you wake up, while you’re waiting for the dryer or during commercial breaks. You get the idea.
During these moments, try to scribble down your ideas, work on a FreeMind mind map, do some motvaltional planning for the week ahead or outline some blog posts. Whatever you do, make it enjoyable.
The obvious advantage to this adjustment is that it keeps your creative coals burning, even when you’re supposedly “off-duty.”
Is It Worth It?
Does all this talk of “exploiting” your precious weekends turn you off? If so, why?
After all, I’m only proposing you stay focused on your success at all times. It will require some rearrangement and sacrifice, but nothing too overly demanding. Should passion and hustle take a day off?
If my suggestions bother you, then ask yourself the much deeper question: do you truly enjoy your work? Are you in control of your future? Is everything you make your own?
Photo by antigone78.
Nancy
Interesting ideas….I have gotten into the habit, in the last six months, of spending about 20-30 minutes on Sunday evening getting myself mentally organized for the week ahead, figuring out what I want to accomplish with work, household stuff, and blogging. Then I go and have a relaxing Sunday night–which *is* much more relaxing as a result of clearing my brain of anything that might be nagging at it. In fact, Sunday-night anxiety and Monday-morning blahs have both decreased noticeably!
Charles
Thanks for the comment, Nancy. I realize weekends are meant for relaxing, decompressing, what have you — but I can’t deny the boost we could all get from a little low level, “unofficial” focus on our long-term success.