I love Mondays!

But it wasn’t always this way. Mondays used to be the worst.

Weekly I would have a case of the Mondays. Any other Office Space fans out there? “Yeah…I’m going to need you to come in on Saturday.”

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I lived for the weekend. I would get the Sunday Scaries, and Mondays would always be looming. Monday controlled me, and my whole week was arranged around it. Monday was the worst and every day that got me further from it was a little better. If it wasn’t Monday, it felt like it was almost Monday. Monday would come out of nowhere.

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You get the idea. It was bad like this for me for a long time, until finally I decided to do something about it.

I still love Fridays and the weekend, but I started to reframe each day of the week so that I actually enjoy all seven of them. Life is too short to hate 1/7th of it (or 5/7ths of it for that matter).

I started to think maybe Mondays didn’t have to be so bad.

Maybe I had just been primed and conditioned to think that Mondays suck. What if Mondays were a chance to get back after it? What if Mondays were an opportunity to do the things that I am on this planet to do.

Maybe you’re in the same boat. You might be working a job you don’t like in a city you don’t want to live in (I’ve been there), but what autonomy do you have to switch the narrative?

Back when I hated Mondays, and they controlled my week.

Sometimes all it takes is something small to tip the whole thing in your favor.

To start, what if you put something on your Mondays that made you look forward to it? Maybe it’s declaring that Monday nights you make a gourmet meal at home with a nice cabernet. Or if cooking isn’t your jam, maybe you go to your favorite taco shop on Mondays. If you have some freedom and flexibility, maybe it’s signing off at 4pm instead of 5pm or 6pm.

I’ve had my own business now for over six years. I’m my own boss, but for some reason I think I was afraid of Monday Lane vs Weekend Lane. I didn’t want to have to report to myself on Monday. The Monday Lane was no different than my first boss at Wells Fargo way back when. Monday Lane was a drill sergeant, and come Sunday night, I didn’t want to report in the morning.

A few years back I realized how dumb this was. I had all this residual baggage from my time working in Corporate America. Wells Fargo and Accenture really took a toll on me. I needed to unlearn a lot, and I think you might need to as well.

Mondays started to change when I realized that I could act on Mondays instead of Mondays acting on me.

I had to change my reference point. Mondays didn’t have to be going back to the dreaded work week. Mondays could be my chance to double down on bringing my skills to my projects and my clients. Mondays could also be just another day. A day that I get to live. A day I get to work. A day I get to enjoy. Chip Gaines has a quote that sticks with me, “Live every day like it’s Saturday.” My mom got me a plaque with this quote on it. Its a great reminder. Chip expounds on this quote in one of his books, that it doesn’t mean that you just play all day everyday. To him it means you should live each day like his favorite Saturdays — they’re a combination of productive, fun, relaxing, and refreshing. I want more of those kind of days as well.

I decided that it would take more than just hoping Mondays would feel better.

So I started by putting a 4pm event on my Google calendar called “Taking Back Mondays.” It didn’t mean I did the same activity every week, but it started to help me reframe my Mondays. It reminded me of my goal. I think the first few months I blew right past the event, and it didn’t change much. But I kept seeing it. Week after week my calendar kept telling me that Mondays were meant to be taken back. Eventually I started to believe it.

I slowly started to believe that I could enjoy Mondays, or at least the late afternoon of Mondays. It gave me the belief that I could go for a run at 4pm on a Monday, whereas years before I could only dream of a world like that.

The funny thing is that my work is outcome and deadline driven. My work needs to get done, but I have flexibility on when I do it, so long as it is done on time. I didn’t have more work that needed to get done on Mondays, its just that Mondays were a signal to me that I had a lot of work to do. I still have a lot of work to do. We all do. But we often have flexibility as to when we do it. For example, I’m writing this on a Sunday night at 9:37pm.

I’ve changed my perspective on work to fit it in where I can and where I need to, but also where I want to. If I’m motivated to work on a Sunday night, then Let’s Go! This takes the edge off of those Mondays.

I think there is a myth out there that needs to be killed. The myth is that we all just want to be lazy. Yes, we will take the path of least resistance quite often, but I think we actually want to be useful. If it feels hard or impossible to be useful, then yes, lazy will win everytime. Mondays suck when we have to do the dreaded work that we don’t want to do, that we don’t like to do, that doesn’t feel like it matters, all for people that don’t appreciate our efforts. Mondays are FIRE when we work on projects that challenge us, on topics we enjoy, that make an impact, and that help people. Even better when our efforts are recognized.

So the takeaways are:

1. Mondays don’t suck. Maybe your job does (and even if this is the case, you can reframe it).

2. If your job doesn’t suck then kick the old “Case of Mondays” vibe because it isn’t serving you.

My Mondays in practice today are my most flexible work day of the week.

I try not to schedule meetings on Mondays if I can help it. I keep recurring meetings to Tuesdays-Thursdays. Sales meetings fall later in the week on Thursdays or Fridays when possible. I still get great work done on Mondays, but I’m okay if I ease into my week a bit. I lower the expectations of Mondays, and therefore the guilt and dread that used to come with them. The irony is Mondays have become some of my most productive days, and I also enjoy them. The paradox of “Taking Back Mondays” is that if you give the day some flexibility, then it will produce more than before. It will also be more enjoyable.

Do you like Mondays? I’d love to hear what you do to Take Back Your Mondays or what ideas are coming up for your future Mondays.

On the road with you to business health. Let’s reclaim Mondays for good.