Lighter & Brighter Series 01: Your Tips for Lighter Mondays

This essay originally appeared in the Monday morning newsletter on 2/22/21.

It’s the last Monday of the month, which means it’s time to share reactions and feedback gathered from the first installment of the Lighter & Brighter series. 
 
The Lighter & Brighter Series is like a monthly book club… but sans books and focused on making everyday parts of life more enjoyable. Every other month, a new topic will be introduced on the last Monday of the month with some ideas on how to make said topic more enjoyable and lighter. If any of it resonates with you, we’ll experiment together for the next month and share feedback on how it’s going. Then, in the month that follows, the reactions and any new ideas will be featured in a newsletter (like today!), so we can all learn from one other.
 
The result? We’ll end 2021 with a tangible takeaway: our very own joy toolbox, filled with a variety of strategies, hacks, tips and tricks for bringing lightness into six different areas of our life.
 
At the end of last month, the question of how do you cultivate a more enjoyable Monday? was posed and I received SO many good suggestions and tips! Thank you to all who shared!! I’m so excited to pass along these ideas today and I can’t wait to start implementing a few into my own Monday routine. 
 
So, without further ado, here are some crowdsourced tips and tricks for pursuing a more enjoyable Monday – enjoy!:
 

Lighter & Brighter Series 01: Tips for a More Enjoyable Monday 

• “One thing I try to do during the work week, but especially on Mondays, is to get up a little earlier than usual to make sure I have time to sit with my coffee while I read the news and catch up on personal emails, before I dive into work.” 
• “In quarantine, I’ve gotten in the habit of baking some kind of healthy-ish breakfast on Sundays, and then I look forward to enjoying it on Monday morning!”
• “I make myself a really nice dinner on Monday nights. My roommate preps meals on Sundays, so it started that I just wouldn’t have access to the kitchen, and now it’s something I really look forward to after work. By the way, one of my favorite tips for making dishes easier is that I sort my silverware in my dishwasher. It’s so much easier to put away when all the spoons, knives and forks are already sorted. This may be a silly or small thing, but I used to hate putting silverware away and now I don’t!” 
• “Mondays are my cleaning day and I actually look forward to it because it just sets my week off right. I know if I can get everything cleaned up and in order on Monday, it will be so much easier to maintain throughout the week.” 
• “On Sunday, I go to the grocery store and pick up some FUN food and snacks for the start of my week. I also like to pick out my mediation for Monday and look at my workout the night before, so I’m excited about it.” 
• “My biggest tip for a more enjoyable Monday starts on Sunday with my Sunday morning prep. I reflect and plan on the big three things I want to do this week and how I want people to feel during interactions with me that week.”
• “I like to plan a mid-week ‘event,’ such as a happy hours or something. to have on my calendar to look forward to past Monday.” 
• “I have a pump-up playlist I listen to going into night shifts. I originally made it for the drive to a board exam, and now it’s my go-to for getting energized.”
• “For a more enjoyable Monday, I keep Sunday evenings open for myself to have time to relax and do whatever I want.” 
• “I always pack my bag for work the night before, plan my breakfast and pack my lunch. For me, if I do it Monday, even if Tuesday is not as organized, I feel like I did one thing right and started the week off right!” 
• “I have ‘weekend-only’ coffee and sometimes I’ll make it on a Monday just to make me feel like it’s still the weekend, and it makes me so happy!”
• “I watch the Bachelor/Bachelorette with a group of people, and I love having an event to look forward to during the day on Monday.”
• “I try not to drink during the work week, but I always treat myself to wine on Monday night.” 
• “Monday and Tuesday mornings are really quiet at the supermarket and other stores compared to Friday-Sunday, so it’s a great time for us to get out and shop with almost no crowds, less traffic and better service. The golf club is also less crowded on Mondays, so I also look forward to that. And on Monday, my wife looks forward to playing bridge and having lunch with friends, such fun that will be resumed as soon as COVID allows. You may be picking up a pattern here… some hate to go back to work on Mondays, and the retirees can’t wait for y’all to go back so that we have better access to shopping and recreation when you are working. 🙂 What can I say, everything makes somebody happy.” (I so agree with that statement!) 

Such great tips, right? Which one do you want to try today?! 

Thanks again to everyone who submitted an idea! If you have a tip or if you try out something from the above, I’d love to hear about it!

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