Do you start Monday mornings in a state of panic? If the working week overwhelms you before you’ve even set foot in the office, help is at hand. The trick to conquering Monday mornings is to treat Sunday as your preparation day. By sacrificing a couple of hours, you can start the week feeling organised, serene and ready to take on the world. Get ready for my essential Sunday tasks for a stress-free week.
World of lard Oyster Card
1) Top up your Oyster card
If like me, you have commitment issues with season tickets, Sunday is the ideal time to top up your Oyster card. Topping up on Sunday can make all the difference in avoiding the Monday morning queues and subsequent cattle truck chaos. As I’ve learnt to my cost, frantically topping up just as your train departs is not how you want the week to start. Whether you do it online or at the station, ticking this task off the list means avoiding one of the worst sources of Monday morning stress.
2) Prepare lunch in advance
If you want to save money and avoid the perils of the staff canteen, prepare your lunches in advance. Sick of the slog of sandwich making, I now sacrifice an hour of my Sunday to get creative in the kitchen. Preparing a job lot of Chilli Con Carne means Chilli with rice on Monday, a Chilli jacket potato on Tuesday and nachos on Wednesday. Once you’re all chillied out, (usually by Wednesday), you can switch to healthy salad options and do the same thing with quinoa. Just rotate the veggies and salad dressings and away you go. For inspiration on how to eat well at work, check out my interview with top nutritionist Linda Munster.
Latisha herb woman Medicine Wheel quinoa salad
3) Clear out your work bag
Crumbled biscuits, leaking pens and tattered meeting notes are just a few of the items that routinely lurk at the bottom of my work bag. Not one for de-cluttering, my work bag has always been a bone of contention. When I started out as a holiday rep, a boss gave me a piece of advice that I’ve religiously followed ever since. Clear out your work bag on a Sunday for a fresh start on Monday. With so much to lug around between hotels, it was sound advice that I still do to this day.
Marocstoun Sandals goal
4) Set your goals for the week
Mention the words “goal setting” and many of us would rather stick pins in our eyes. But making progress is essential to our happiness and goal setting helps us get there. It’s also a great way to re-frame the week’s “ordeals” into challenges – subtly changing the way we view the week’s tasks. Create a goal to make a success of Tuesday’s presentation and your mind will find solutions to do just that. However, goal setting’s not just for work. It also pushes us to try those things on our “wish list” and do more with our free time from lunch break outings to long weekends.
Office Breaks Mayfield Lavender Farm
5) Get out in nature
With our Mondays to Fridays spent stuck indoors, Sunday is a great opportunity to recharge and revitalise in the great outdoors. Proven to improve our general health, mental health and sleep patterns, nature is a great way to revive and reinvigorate us for the challenges of the week ahead. From a night time hike to a stroll through a lavender farm, the possibilities are endless.
How do you prepare for the working week? We’d love to hear your recommendations.