3 Ways to Punch the 'Mondays' in the Face
"Sounds like somebody has a case of the Mondays!" Egad. Just the phrase brings to mind that woman's face, and makes me want to react violently.
I suspect I'm not alone, either.
That doesn't make her point less true, however. Mondays are a productivity nightmare. How can you pummel the sluggishness, reticence, and annoyance of the initial hours of the work week?
3. Easy Like Monday Morning
Don't set yourself up for disappointment. If you front-load your work week with the most difficult tasks, then you're making it even more likely that you'll succumb to the Mondays.
Instead, get extra-caffeinated and extra-productive on Friday afternoons, or perhaps, start with the easiest tasks on Monday morning, such as returning client emails, pushing paperwork, etc.
Tacking a few easy tasks will make you feel more productive and accomplished, and will hopefully give you the motivation you need for the heavier lifting (such as responding to the opposing counsel's fifty-page brief).
2. Check for Patterns
In Office Space, the protagonist's trigger was his evil boss and the TPS Report cover sheets. Everyone has their own version of these triggers. Is it a Monday morning meeting? Pessimistic paralegals? Paperwork pileups caused by procrastination?
See if your annoyances come in a repeatable pattern and adjust. And by adjust, we don't suggest burning down the office.
1. Become Mary Freaking Poppins
Forbes has their own list, some of which we agree with, and some of which ... well ... judge for yourself.
Have fun at work? Maybe. Be positive and make someone else happy? Eh. Wake up early? No way in hell. We kid, because actually, positive thinking can work. If you go into work with confidence that the week will suck, then yes, it almost certainly will. Self-fulfilling prophesies and whatnot.
We're not saying to frolic amongst the flowers on the way to work, or to sing happy tunes in your office. What we are saying, however, is that if you go into work with an "I got this" mentality, and you knock a few easy tasks off your to do list, you may just be able to reverse your trend of unhappy Mondays.
Or at a minimum, you'll distract yourself with emails until lunch. That works too.
What's your solution to "the Mondays," besides, of course, reading the greatest law blogs on the planet? Share your thoughts on Facebook at FindLaw for Legal Professionals.
Related Resources:
- 5 Things to Help You Get Motivated and Productive on Wednesday (FindLaw's Strategist Blog)
- 4 Counter-Intuitive Ways to Increase Productivity (FindLaw's Strategist Blog)
- Want to Make Your Firm More Productive? Add Nap Time (FindLaw's Strategist Blog)
