How to Beat the Sunday Scaries
If you work at a corporate Monday to Friday job, I’m sure you have heard of the dreaded Sunday Scaries. You wake up Sunday morning, excited to have the day off, but a little more apprehensive than Saturday morning about fully enjoying yourself. And by Sunday evening, you’re texting your friends or posting on Instagram asking everyone “where did the weekend go?!” Welcome to the Sunday Scaries. For a lot of us, the impending doom of Mondays are here to stay so here are a few things I do to make my weekends more enjoyable and my work week a little easier. Everyone has different priorities, but this is what works for me. I would love to learn what works for you, so leave a comment below!
1. Grocery Shop on a Sunday
This is actually an enjoyable activity for me. I tend to put a podcast in and get a shopping cart and just take my time browsing the aisles of the grocery store. Especially since we are working from home these days, it’s nice having a fridge stocked with snacks, drinks, and quick meals, that will energize or comfort you throughout the day. I also usually treat myself to a more special breakfast or lunch to have something to look forward to. For example, I love Sainsbury’s cheesy bacon gluten free quiche to start my Mondays.
2. Clean the house
For me, a clean house makes for a clear mind. Again, as we continue to work from home, it’s super important to declutter your space in order to not get overwhelmed or distracted. During the weekends, I like to do an overall deep clean or focus on cleaning just one area of the house that I haven’t give much attention to.
And during the work week, I make sure to always make my bed in the morning (I’m sure you have heard the benefits to this but if not read here) and take 10 minutes breaks throughout the day to wash dishes or put a load of laundry in. Not only does this help me keep my place clean, it makes me feel productive and gives my brain a little rest/reset from some mundane work tasks.
3. Get a Podcast line-up for Monday
I’ve always loved listening to podcasts while working and commuting to work. What I found helpful for Mondays is having a few podcasts lined up that I can get excited for. Below are a few of my favorites that I have on rotation:
Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
4. Separate your work and personal devices
If your company gives you a separate work phone and work laptop, utilize these! It’s important to unplug and get away from notifications for when you’re not working. There’s nothing worse when you’re on your personal computer browsing Pinterest and trying to relax when a Slack notification comes up, bringing your mind back to work. It is also great to be able to customize your work laptop desktop or work phone’s apps so it makes working more efficient for you. Of course, if you don’t have a separate work laptop or phone, there are way to silence notifications on work apps after certain hours or be able to hide work stuff all in one folder. You can also have a separate browser just for work stuff to help draw boundaries. Because I am working from my room, I even took it a step further to hide my work laptop and supplies for when I’m not working. I put my laptop, charger, notebook, and headphones into a box and place it under a table for when I’m done working (see images below). And the act of doing this has helped me to really unplug.
5. Exercise on the weekends
This is just my preference because I’m often too burnt out on the weekdays to stay consisted on my exercising. But if I’m able to do one or two long classes or sessions over the weekend, I’ll feel pretty good for Monday. And i wont be so hard on myself during the rest of the work week. If you want to see some of the free online classes I’ve been taking during lockdown, click on the links below:
6. Don’t sleep in on the weekends.
This is something I’m sure many people will disagree with, but I still try to get up around the same time on the weekends so I won’t be too tired on a Monday. At this point, my body is pretty accustomed to waking up around 6am every morning. I don’t go out often or stay up late so this is pretty easy for me to do. But on the rare occasion that I do stay up later one night, I will allow myself to sleep in or take a couple of naps throughout the day.
7. Budget/Check in on Finances
For me it’s helpful going into the week knowing where I’m at financially. I can budget, add more to my savings, or know to plan less activities for the following weekend. I can get financial anxiety from time to time, and the best thing I can do to combat that is just make sure I’m budgeting properly. Knowing I have a decent emergency fund, savings, and doing what I can to reduce my student-loan debt makes me feel more in control of my life.
8. Give yourself 10 minutes to read through some emails
On a Sunday evening I like to give myself just 10 minutes to browse through some emails that may have slipped into my inbox over the weekend. As much as I advocate for work/life balance, I believe allowing yourself 10 minutes on a Sunday to prep for Monday is incredibly beneficial for reducing stress and anxiety for the upcoming work week.