How Employees Can Learn to Love Mondays
It’s a little strange that it’s 2019 and the general opinion of Monday is still not positive. According to Gallup research, Mondays are one of the worst days of the week for a person’s overall wellbeing. This kind of wellbeing is made up of five elements that include purpose, social, financial, community, and physical. We thrive when the five work in sync together, and struggle when one, or all five, aren’t in harmony.
It throws the entire team for a loop when an employee’s wellbeing is off in the workplace. All of a sudden, everyone has a “case of the Mondays” on Monday morning and productivity is down across the board. However, the “Mondays, amirite?” mentality, curiously enough, wraps up just in time for that “Friday feeling.” And then we do it all over again next week.
Rather than continue to repeat the cycle, isn’t it time we changed the narrative on Mondays? Is it possible to love, not loathe, this day of the week? What does it take for employees to embrace Mondays?
Be mindful during the weekend.
Sometimes weekend activities are to blame. If you spent Saturday and Sunday partying and eating junk food, it’s not entirely surprising to see employees spend the better part of Monday attempting to nurse away the weekend’s hangovers.
If you have the opportunity to be mindful over the weekend, take it. Not every weekend needs to be one where you party nonstop from 5 PM Friday night until 9 PM on Sunday. Treat your weekends as time to relax and accomplish other tasks you put off during the week. Nourish yourself mentally and physically during these few days. Spend time working out, meal prepping for the week ahead, and enjoying long chats with your favorite people.
Make Monday the day to conquer to-do lists.
I’ve always liked a certain Lewis Carroll quote from the book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. In this book, Alice (of Wonderland fame) tells the Queen that one cannot believe in impossible things. The Queen replies that in her younger days, she believed in impossible things for at least 30 minutes daily. “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
This is completely applicable to employees and their to-do lists. A to-do list is generally made up of possible and impossible things alike. All of them will get done in time, even the difficult ones. Turn Monday into the start of getting through that list and try to do a few impossible things on it.
What looks impossible on your to-do list? Is it sending an email you have been putting off? Draft it, hit send, cross it off. Should you begin working on a side project with a Friday deadline? Yes—even 30 minutes spent on it will get you closer to accomplishing the task before it is due. With the help of this approach, Mondays will gradually turn into days where you can leave the office feeling victorious that you did as much as you can—possible and impossible things alike.
Make it a team effort.
One of the best ways to get a group of employees to embrace any changes, subtle or major, within an organization is to rally together with a strong leader. A great leader will be able to communicate change and act on it. However, the key isn’t in making change feel drastic or sudden. It’s being able to make a shift in a way that fills even the most hesitant naysayer with confidence. You’re moving in a new direction, but it’s healthy and meant to benefit everyone.
Consider appointing a leader to guide teams towards making Mondays meaningful. This person may go around and check in with team members first thing in the morning, or send motivational emails. They’ll help guide the team towards making the most out of Monday. It may not happen all at once, but gradually mindsets will begin to shift towards this day of the week. And Monday will become a day to get excited for and embrace.
