There is a reason the TMC (Tuesday Morning Commentary) comes out on Tuesdays. (Well at least most Tuesdays… yes, I remember the December 11 posting error!) It’s because Mondays are too busy. Your mailbox is being pelted with Monday Morning Updates and newsletters, emails from clients, superiors, and peers who sent stuff over the weekend. And then there is that dreaded Monday morning meeting, which typically puts you behind for the whole week. I figure that by Tuesday morning, things have calmed a little and you have a better chance of reading this!
So how can we make Mondays more palatable? I have a few thoughts of my own and also want to share a few that I saw in Douglas Magazine in an article written by Mike Vardy “The Productivityist!” Here are three suggestions.
- Get rid of the Monday morning meetings, especially those archaic Monday morning sales meetings. Welcome to the 21st century! Why do you make your sales staff come into the office first thing Monday morning—the busiest morning drive of the week—just to give them a pep talk, update them, and then send them back out on the road? The same goes for operational meetings on Mondays. Shift them to later in the week and later in the day.
- Block time in your calendar. If you need time to get organized for the week, block the first two hours of Monday morning to plan, do research, or sift through email and phone messages. The key is to block the time so nothing else gets booked.
- Better than doing the planning for the week on Monday morning, do it Friday afternoon. (or as Mike suggests, on Sunday!) Before you call it a day on Friday and head out for the weekend, take 30 minutes or so and map out your next week. That way, when Monday starts, you already have a plan in place and you can spend the weekend not worrying about Monday or planning for next week!
How do you survive on Monday mornings? Is it a pain for you, or do you have it all mapped out? I would be interested in hearing your suggestions!
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