“TGIM!” How to Make Mondays Work For You

Mondays get no respect.

People either, A) despise the day because it’s the very thing that separates their carefree weekend from their long and tedious workweek or B) treat the day as a be-all-end-all for the week, putting way too much pressure on it to get the week off “on the right foot.”

Often, we load Mondays up with too many expectations; it’s the scapegoat for our bad behavior. For example, let’s say you are working on losing weight, and doing really well, but you have an ‘off’ weekend. Maybe you went to a party on Saturday and ended up eating way more than you told yourself you would. Instead of chalking it up to one digression that, in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t mean very much, you immediately make the decision that the weekend is ruined and you’ll just start again on when? Monday, of course!

When we mentally create expectations of starting the week off as either great or miserable, there is a danger that the whole thing can go up in flames quickly. As soon as things begin to interfere with your chosen expectation, it can end up feeling like the entire week is already a lost cause by lunchtime.

How you currently think about Mondays is a habit.

This habit holds a lot of power over our mental state…if we allow it to. But, you need to remember you are the one in control; not Monday. By changing how we treat Mondays, we can take a lot of pressure off and make it just another day. Enough so that you might start shouting “TGIM!”

Never mind…let’s not push it. ;)

I invite you to apply this one mindset shift going forward; drop your expectations. No more Monday expectations! Stop “leaving things until” Monday, don’t “start” things on Monday, and (if you are able to) keep your Mondays open by only lightly scheduling them.

We put way too much pressure on Mondays, and by making this one mindset shift, you will be amazed at how much more easily you will glide into your week and allow yourself to be more productive than ever, simply because you’re more calm and in control. All it takes is to make the choice to give poor old Monday a break.

Originally published on Medium.

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Note: TGIM in this article stands for ‘Thank goodness it’s Monday!’ In the US, there is a saying ‘TGIF’ (‘Thank goodness it’s Friday!’) that we use to indicate our excitement that the weekend is near.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash