Never Miss A Monday.

Let’s rewind to last Sunday.

You know, when that overwhelming wave of existential dread started creeping into your body.

It was Sunday night, and you were asking yourself,

“Did I relax hard enough on my days off?”

“Did I get enough done on my to-do list over the weekend?”

or even worse, you were crippled by the never-ending list of things on your plate that awaited you on Monday morning.

Enter SUNDAY SCARIES

As someone who is unfortunately not immune to the Sunday scaries, let me be honest for a minute. The freedom to make my own schedule is a blessing and a curse. I admit that I’ve been so overwhelmed by this feeling that I would skip Monday morning altogether for a while. Because … well … who’s stopping me??

On the other hand, I’m committed to living in a world where I can be in control of my time and, because of that, I can enjoy less fear approaching Monday morning. So here’s the one thing I’ve implemented into my work routine that’s helped reduce my anxiety and support my commitment to Never Missing (another) Monday.

The real secret is that it starts by preparing on Friday.

I used to work at an agency for several years. I started there, as most designers do, in a Junior position and worked my way up to the role of Art Director and manager of a small team over time. Managing a team’s time revealed how poorly I managed my own, and I quickly became overwhelmed.

A mentor at the time mentioned that to succeed in this position; I had to start my week on Sunday night. Using that time to plan out and prepare for the week ahead … even to send out some emails if it called for it.

Although I greatly respect this mentor, I no longer believe in the necessity of operating in this model. Instead of building more time into the weekend, infiltrating my designated “rest” time, I shifted this prep to a slot that made more sense – Friday afternoon.

Friday is the new Sunday.

I plan out all of the work for the week ahead on Friday afternoon, which leaves me feeling like everything is accounted for as I head into the weekend. If I know I’ll need to send out some reminders on Monday morning, I write them on Friday and schedule send them for 8:00 A.M. the following week so that they’re off my plate before I even sit down at my desk to start come Monday morning.

I’m finding it so much easier to show up at the beginning of the week when I’m not dreading that scramble, and I’m no longer starting with the feeling of constantly trying to catch my breath.

*slams laptop shut til Monday *