Conquering Monday Blues for a Productive Week

After an exciting weekend, arrives a new week with all its burden of work, expectations and anxiety. Well, Monday is here, and you are sluggish and perhaps wondering how to make this feeling go away.

With only a few good strategies, you can overcome your Monday blues well and ace the week with the right amount of motivation and happiness!

The idea is to have just a pinch of intention to craft the best plan of the week to kickstart your Monday and run with it thereafter.

Embrace a fresh start with a few strategies that I find very effective:

1. Create a Light but Stimulating Schedule: Start your day with easy and achievable tasks to engage your mind, check in on yourself to see how your energy levels are, whether or not you are sleep-deprived, etc. Gradually increase the complexity of your tasks as the day progresses, rewarding yourself with progressive accomplishment with increasing levels of motivation.
2. Practice Mindfulness: You would be surprised to know how adding a meditation window into your schedule could breathe immense positivity into your week! Set aside 10–15mins, probably in the second half of the day, to practice a round of deep breathing, identifying stress and anxiety in your body, and flushing them out! I recommend this guided meditation by Headspace: Free Short Meditation: Release Stress and Anxious Thoughts, followed by a short visualisation exercise: Compass Gardens. I recommend doing this by lying down on your back, so you can experience a state of relaxation. Practising mindfulness will help you stay centred and focused throughout the day.
3. Stay Hydrated: Start every morning with a glass of water, and see multiple benefits to rejuvenate your body. Continue staying hydrated throughout the day, by breaking down your intake into morning, afternoon, evening and lunch. A good drink water reminder app like Water Reminder could help you with excellent reminders if you struggle initially to follow your hydration routine. Proper hydration is crucial for maintaining energy levels and mental clarity, helping you stay alert and productive.
4. Plan the week (Roughly): It is a good idea to plan your week but don’t be too detailed and rigid in doing so, else you take away the fun component from the planning exercise! Plan your week such that your workload peaks mid-week, and cools down by Friday evening.
5. Identify your Productive Hours: Experienced professionals swear by identifying their productive hours to perform the most impactful and sometimes the highest priority tasks. Identify your most productive hours (2–3 hours a day), and try to add all important tasks in those hours, especially the tasks that require critical thinking, long-term work planning, ideation and process building, etc. Utilize these hours well so that you can use the other hours for maintenance and support work.
6. Don’t forget to take breaks!
7. Use a wind-down schedule to lead yourself to the completion of the workday. Unless it is a crisis you are handling, avoid stretching your Monday schedule to work late. Remember, Mondays are to set the tone for your week. Read 10 pages of a book, read some articles outside work, cook a dish, take your dog for a walk, watch a movie or an episode of your current favourite web series. Allow your mind to settle down and relax.

Feel free to take it for your desk :)

Through these strategies, you can overcome those dreaded Monday blues and unlock your full potential throughout the week.

Remember to consciously have a positive start on Monday so that it can set the tone for the entire week, propelling you towards success and fulfilment in all your endeavours. Embrace this opportunity, take charge of your week, and make it one to remember.

Happy Monday!