Welcome back to another installment of the “Monday moving forward” series, a collection of posts aiming at streamlining your start of the week, by getting you unstuck, moving forward and re-entering the work vibe after a nice and relaxed weekend.
Today, a very simple, yet incredibly effective tip (at least for me): try to define what a “good Monday” will look like in the fist hour of the day. You may start planning your routine, make breakfast, attend emergencies first, whatever works for you, but, on top of that, try also to define in the most precise way how a “productive” Monday will look like. Be specific, think it through, and write it down.
This may be a question of selecting just 3 main tasks for the day or picking a main theme for your Monday. Whatever you feel like in the moment. Every start of the week is different, so every “positive” outcome is different, just take the time to define it properly.
Sometimes, we start the week with very inflated expectations. Just because it’s the beginning of a new circaseptan rhythm, we invest so much in it and we expect to smash it and be incredibly productive. It’s a new week, so I must give it all, right?
Well, it doesn’t always work like that. Sometimes, the outcome of a good day may mean just finishing half of what you have on your to do list. You can settle with that if, for instance, you’re overworked, or tired, or ill. Don’t stretch, if you can’t stretch.
And sometimes, just because you had a good rest during the weekend, you may accomplish as much as three times the volume of stuff you would do in a normal day. If that’s what shapes a “good” day for you, go for it.
The trick here is to identify it early in the morning. Don’t try to project it in advance (although you can certainly plan your Monday from Sunday evening), but don’t postpone doing it early. Try to make peace with whatever you set up to do that Monday very early. As you advance in the day, you will then adjust your effort, and your expectations.
For me, this Monday had the following structure: work at least 4 hours for an ongoing project, at least 1 and half hours for two minor projects, and then spend at least one hour outside, walking.
All of this was marked as done before even starting to write this post.
Yeah, I had a good Monday.
Image by congerdesign from Pixabay
