When the weekend roller coaster comes to a grinding halt, Monday starts rearing its ugly head…

As business owners, we need to capitalize on every chance to squeeze productivity out of the week. If we don’t start the week off right, we start bringing Monday’s to-do list into Tuesday, and Tuesday into Wednesday until we end up in a pit of unproductivity (sometimes called winter in Canada)!

Here’s how you can revel in the weekend and still bring everything you have into the work week:

#1. Do 1 productive task on Sunday

For me this means recapping the week and planning the next.

You don’t need to “work” on a Sunday in order to be “productive”.

I’ve accomplished this feeling through grocery shopping, going for a long run to think about my business goals and next week’s action steps to get there, even arts & crafts can do the trick, to unleash a surge of creativity that carries throughout the week!

It helps to listen to an audiobook or podcast while you’re at it to really put you in that almost-Monday spirit.

#2. Have something to look forward to

Find a way to treat yourself for having a good, productive day.

Ask a friend to go for lunch, schedule a squash game with a buddy in the evening, etc.

I like to feel accomplished so I can go into a self-interest activity guilt-free. By scheduling this self-interest activity in advance, it creates the pressure to be productive throughout the day.

Think about these plans right when you wake up, and then begin to process everything you need done in advance.

This usually stops me from hitting the snooze button.

#3. Dress for the day you’re going to have

Coming out of the shower in the morning, foggy headed and slightly cold, my first instinct is to grab warm accessible clothes.

Now, sporting a big warm sweater doesn’t put me in the mindset of success. Rather, it puts me in the mindset of comfort. Personally, I am not nearly as clear headed in “comfort” clothes as I am in more “professional” dress.

If you want to own the day, it starts with what you decide to do with your wardrobe.

#4. Have a fun team meeting

At Full Circle, we take an hour every Monday morning to go through our personal wins, then discuss the objectives inside of each quarterly goal.

Now, this document takes a good hour in advance to prepare for but after our time together we are all fired up, motivated, with lots of action steps to put into action this week.  

It’s tough to bum around and accomplish very little when you know the rest of your team is pulling their weight.

 

#5. Move unimportant meetings to later in the week

It’s a great motivator, and necessary for planning the week to have a team meeting on Monday mornings but I prefer to limit the other calls and meetings I have that day.

By eliminating these distractions, it provides more time for clustering productive activities.

Getting through your to-do list (and maybe even starting on Tuesday’s work) makes you feel invincible.

NOW you’re ready to own the entire week…

#5.5. A few obvious bonus tips

Obviously your Monday is going to be largely affected by the amount of sleep you get Sunday night.

Find a way to want to go to bed earlier, which might come down to waking up earlier on Sunday morning instead of eating up all the sleep you can get. Hit the market, take a jog!

And of course, coffee.

If this is one of your vices, get a coffee maker you can program to start perking when you alarm goes off. Fresh coffee is reason enough to Monday.

“You Can Do It” –  coffee

 

This is in no way an exhaustive list, but they are manageable action steps to creating more control over the Monday feels.

What did we forget from the list?

Help Monday victims all over the world by leaving a comment with your #1 strategy for mastering this valuable day of the week.