I’m sat here on Sunday night, having had a great weekend (great weekend consisting of drinking one too many proseccos, grazing my way through West London’s brunch spots with friends and family and taking loooong walks with my dog Bali). If like the majority of the world you work a 9-5 job then you’ll be all too familiar with that feeling of trying to clutch to every last hour of Sunday before it officially fades into Monday morning. There’s always that looming darkness that creeps into your mind waaaaaay too early on Sunday afternoon where you find yourself wondering if you sent that email to your colleague Brian about the product order or remembering to make a mental note to chase that client or just reassuring yourself that you are prepared for the reality of Monday. Either way these thoughts eat into our weekend!

Now I work freelance now and have found my work / life balance but work is still work and even though I love what I do unfortunately my work doesn’t consist of sitting on a beach with a cocktail in hand! Well it’s time to take back your Sunday, so here’s how I manage to start my week with a positive, motivational and all round happier frame of mind…

1. Enjoy what you do – Easier said than done right? But of course you have chosen a career in something that you have even a mild interest in or you wouldn’t have applied for the job, yes? Remind yourself what you like about work, even if it’s just your colleagues, maybe it’s because you know it inside out and you’re an expert in your field, maybe it’s because you’re working towards that pay rise or promotion – or that somewhere in life you had a passion for your industry, remember that passion and remind yourself that you achieved it!
2. OK if you are sat there reading this and thinking nope I still don’t enjoy work then think about what you are working for instead – is it that new car? Is it for a deposit on a house with your partner? That holiday you’ve been dreaming of? Or even those tickets to that festival you’ve always wanted to go to! However big or small the goal, going to work is still making it possible! My Dad makes a mood board at the start of the year plastered with pictures of what he wants to achieve over the next 12 months and it sits above his desk, why don’t you make one of these and put it on your wall so you can look at it each morning when you get up.
3. Now I’m a big believer in writing lists, (in fact I go through approximately 5 refill pads for my Aspinal note book every year!) so you guessed it, I want you to put that pen to paper (or finger to IPhone) and write a list of what you want to achieve this week. It doesn’t have to have anything to do with work, it could be to join that netball team, book that weekend away, sort out your bedroom, order the shopping, buy some flowers for the lounge, put £100 into savings – ticking something off a list, however mundane the task seems, is soooooo rewarding and you can actually see what you have achieved. Heck, why not write a list for each day of all the things you have to do. Lists help organise our thoughts and make sure we stay on track.
4. Plan something nice – I go back to this point quite a lot, if you have something fun planned with friends or family or even on your own, or with your dog or whatever, you have something to look forward to! A friend of mine always plans their next holiday whilst they are on their current holiday, BRILLIANT! That way you have no holiday blues because you have another one to look forward to. So use Sunday night or Monday morning to organise a catch up with your bestie mid week, or make Thursday the new Friday and plan to grab a couple of drinks with colleagues after work, call the girls to book a date for that Sunday brunch you’ve been trying to get in the diary.
5. Remember you are not alone! – This one’s a good one, I remember once that I sat in a class in secondary school on the first day back after summer and had to hold back tears because I kept reminiscing on the amazing 6 weeks of fun I’d just had and then I looked around the classroom at my friends and thought to myself ‘well they’ve just had 6 weeks off too, they probabaly don’t want to be here just as much as I don’t so we’re all in the same boat’. Trust me, that guy sat opposite you on the bus with his briefcase, that woman waiting for the train reading the metro, the boy in the suit nodding his head to his headphone music they are all travelling to work – just like we all are, so rather than feeling sorry for yourself or bitter about the whole situation, give them a smile and remember points 1-4 😉

These are my tips anyway, but let me know if you guys have your own way of kick starting your Monday…have a good week!

Lexie xxx