It’s Sunday evening and you’ve just wrapped up a lovely weekend in the sunshine. You’ve had the best time with friends at a brunch party, gone for a long walk in the park, worked on that business plan for your dream company or perhaps you just spent the weekend indulging in a little bit of self-care. Life is good and you are living it to the fullest. Up until this point, there are no Monday blues in sight.
Then comes Monday morning, when the tanning lotions are put away, the wine is all finished, and your alarm starts ringing at 7am. That sleepy summery haze you were in all weekend has been replaced by email overloads, deadlines and stress. I don’t know about you but I find it tough. Really tough. To make it worse, I have always been more nocturnal and early mornings are a killer for me, as is Monday morning rush hour on the London Underground. You can see where all this is going – the dreaded Monday blues. So many people suffer from them every so often, so I’ve put together a list of 5 ways you can get over your Monday blues and start the week in the right way!
5 Tips to Overcome the Monday Blues
Start Sunday
Given that I’m not the biggest fan of Monday mornings, I do the worst possible thing and extend my Sunday evening as long as I can. I also have a really bad habit of leaving everything tedious I need to do at the weekend to Sunday evening too, meaning that I end up getting to bed anywhere between 1am and 2am. Naturally, I wake up exhausted on Monday morning and already set myself up for a bad start – usually running late.
New plan? Aim to be in bed by 11pm on Sunday night, so that I can calculate a whole 7 to 8 hours of sleep. It’s true that when I go to bed at a reasonable hour, I always wake up so much better and sometimes even without the alarm. So my first tip for beating Monday morning blues is to get all of your errands and lifemin done throughout the weekend, so that you can have an early night on Sunday and get a full night’s rest.
Wake Up Early
So you’ve gone to bed early on Sunday evening so this next one should be easy – or maybe not. It’s a challenge for me too, but when I do start the morning earlier, I am so much more productive throughout the day. To help me to wake up, I use an app called Sleep Cycle. You can download this to your phone, with the basic version of the app being free of charge. The app monitors where you are in your 90 minute sleep cycle. The first state in a sleep cycle is light sleep, followed by deep sleep and lastly dream state. The app aims to wake you up around the time of the alarm set whilst you are in the light stage of sleep. I promise it really does make a difference!
Workout & Prepare Breakfast
So now that you are up early thanks to the new app you’ve downloaded, start the day the right way and get some exercise in – a brisk walk, an easy run, a yoga class or an aerobics video on YouTube in your living room. Remember it’s only hard for the first few minutes until you get into it. You may not feel like it all, but have you ever regretted a workout once it’s done? You probably have regretted not working out though. Give it a try – good for the mind and good for the body, and just generally good for your health.
So you’ve woken up early and worked out, and since it’s still only 7:45am, that means enough time to make your own breakfast, rather than picking up a croissant on the way into the office! The internet is flooded with easy and quick breakfast ideas to suit any kind of diet. Treat yourself to a tasty but healthy breakfast to kick-start your Mondays, and avoid anything that will put you back into a slump (I’m talking about you dear fry-up).
Dress to Impress
At this point, your Monday blues should already start to feel a little bit lighter. To continue on with these good vibes, pick your favourite outfit, style your hair, put some make up on and spritz your favourite perfume. If you look good, you feel good so make that extra effort on a Monday to dress to impress. You will leave the house feeling confident, self-esteem boosted and endorphins still having a party after your workout routine.
Do Something For You
Everyone gets to work on a Monday morning and starts running through the long list of things that need doing over the week, adding to Monday blues. What I try to do, at least most days, is to start with the task that I am dreading the most or that I find the most challenging, just to get it out of the way. Once the you’ve done what you have been dreading the most, find the time to schedule in something for you or something to look forward to.
It could be planning your next holiday or next Saturday’s BBQ over your lunch break, or walking around the shops in your free hour. For me personally, it’s walking around Old Bond Street, checking out what shoes my wardrobe is missing. If you know you have something to look forward to, you’ll be more motivated to get stuff done so that you can move on to doing something that you actually want to do.
There you have it – my five tips on how to beat your Monday blues. Since this is something I really struggle with, I did a lot of reading online in search of tips for this post, and picked the ones that I can realistically try this upcoming Monday. And don’t be too hard on yourself if you ease into these suggestions. Remember there is always tomorrow to try again and and as someone once said to me, if all else fails, pretend it’s Tuesday!
What are your tips for beating Monday blues? Have you tried any of the tips above already? What are your thoughts? Leave your tips in the comments section below!
All images taken on a weekend retreat at Qasr al Sarab in Abu Dhabi.
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Sarah is a syndicated freelance writer and editor of Dukes Avenue. She founded Dukes Avenue in 2018 as a creative outlet while working at a London hedge fund. What initially started as a small blog has become a widely read luxury lifestyle online publication targeted at the modern woman, with content curated to inspire readers to live their best and most fulfilled lives. Sarah has lived in London, Malta, and, most recently, the United Arab Emirates and uses her travels and experiences to inspire much of the content.
