Monday doesn’t have to be hard: Here are 10 Best Ways to Kick-Start your Week

Let’s be honest, who wants to wake up on a Monday morning after a fun weekend and go through the rush-hour horror just to get to work on time? Especially if you live in a city like Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, where it is almost impossible to have mental stability. Nobody would want to work under such condition if they had better choices.

Imagine we don’t have to work so hard to make money. Imagine there are no bills to pay. Imagine if you could just waltz to your backyard garden and pluck a few hundred dollars that would last you for the week. Sounds cool right? Unless it only exists in the imagination.

Back to real life, Monday is inevitable and the grind is a do-or-die affair if you want to achieve a semblance of success in your business life or career. There are ways to mitigate the mood swings that Monday brings.

Here are ten things you can do moving forward.

1. Don’t carryover work from the previous week

If you want to feel less worried or sad on Sunday night, make sure you finish all your work on a Friday before. Resist the urge of taking work from the previous week into the weekend unless it’s out of your control. This is important because Monday is usually a busy day and a new week comes with its own load of deliverables. Bringing unfinished work from the previous week into a new week would weigh you down and make it difficult for you to get into work-mode on Monday.

2. Don’t work on weekends

If you manage to avoid number one, you should also do this. Ignore work-related emails or instant messaging on the weekend. Spend your weekend doing the things you enjoy – spend time with family, friends, or just observe your ‘me’ time. However, if you’re an essential worker like a doctor, nurse, or journalist, you might not be able to turn off your work notifications. That said, you must work out your own ‘me’ time. Everybody needs to take care of their mental health. If you don’t do it yourself, your body would force it on you at some point and you’d be lucky to survive it. Always remember that life will go on with or without you. Nobody is indispensable after all.

3. Sleep well 

Forget about what motivational speakers have told you about sleeping. They’d tell you to work late into the night and wake early in the morning. Know this, not having enough sleep does not make you a hard worker, neither does it assure success. It has been medically proven that not sleeping well would reduce your level of productivity. Sleep enables the body to repair and be fit and ready for another day. For more about quality sleep, read here.

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4. Workout to raise the energy level

If you can take out a few minutes to exercise before setting out on Monday, that would be helpful. It doesn’t have to be something rigorous. You could run around your compound or do two or three routines of aerobic exercises – just enough to release happy endorphins and boost your energy levels by 20%.

5. Eat breakfast

It cannot be overemphasized that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Eat something light in the morning, while you’re on your way to work or before you bury yourself into the day’s tasks. Smoothie, oatmeal, toast, and plenty of protein to boost your metabolism.

6. Dress sharp

What you wear has a direct impact on how you feel. If you have new clothes, shoes or wristwatch you haven’t worn, Monday is the best day to launch it. If nothing is new, reserve your favourite outfit for Mondays. This will help boost your confidence level.

7. Listen to music

Music, they say, is the food for the soul. Curate a playlist of your favourite songs to set yourself in the right mood. This tactic hardly fails. Plug your earpiece and get lost in the bliss as you commute to work. Keep the music on while you are at work, at least for a few more hours.  

8. Write out your week’s tasks

It’s helpful to list out what you want to achieve for the week and break it down into days. Stick the target list to your desk, computer, or anywhere you can see it every second. That way, nothing is clumsy and the tasks become easier to achieve.

9. Don’t be in a hurry to go home

Avoid looking at the clock at intervals. Focus on the work at hand and do a good job of it. Checking the time will do you more harm than good – for some strange reason, it always seems like the day is taking longer. By the way, people who are always eager to clock out hardly love what they do and most likely don’t deliver excellence. Don’t be that person. Be productive.

10. Don’t overhype the weekend

It always seems like the weekend comes like a flash, and we are sad when it ends. That is because we depend too much on it. Who says you can’t make fun plans during the week? You don’t have to wait till the weekend to see the new movie at the cinema or hang with friends. Break the all-about-the-weekend jinx and see how better your week turns out.