How to Start Loving Mondays

I wrote this on a Monday, my second favorite day of the week.

Let me explain.

For obvious reasons, Friday-or Friyay I should say, is my absolute favorite day of the week.

Why?

Because I love ending a week of productivity. I love the anticipation of fun and relaxation and family time ahead of me. I love a good cocktail or pizza night or dessert I’m probably indulging in on a Friday.

But, I also love Monday. Like A LOT.

This wasn’t always the case for me.

When I was a corporate executive, commuting to San Francisco from the East Bay or commuting to NJ from NY, I didn’t really love a Monday. I didn’t love the fact that I was gearing up for lots of hours away from my family. I didn’t love the fact that I wasn’t totally in charge of my time and schedule. I didn’t love the fact that I had to cram a lot of stuff into two hours in the evening after a long day, when I wasn’t necessarily feeling like my best self. And I really didn’t love that I had to do this for four more days ahead.

But, now, I love me a Monday.

Here’s why:

It's a fresh start. I love turning a new page in my journal. I love starting a new book. I love and have always loved the beginning of the school year—I know kinda nerdy, but I did. I love wearing a new outfit. I love a fresh start. Monday, in my opinion, is always a fresh start.

I love what I do. I love my work and the gratitude I feel that I get to spend about 25 hours over the next five days doing this type of work makes me so freaking happy. I am literally bursting with happiness doing the work I do. I am excited to support women the way I do everyday. I’m excited to speak on stages or publish new podcast episodes or write more pages for my book or even redesign my website, which can sometimes be a love/hate relationship because...tech.

And finally, I love that I’m able to create the life I want by simply making decisions on how I spend my time and how I structure my schedule. That’s it. Time management is the crux of being able to live a life you love, a life where you’re excited to wake up in the morning, a life where Mondays become your second most favorite day of the week. Literally, it is the reason why I can absolutely be head over heels in love with a Monday.

Now, I get it, Mondays can suck. I’ve been there. As I mentioned, I wasn’t always a fan of Mondays. But here’s the thing to remember, you get to decide to some degree how you manage your time and whether or not you strongly dislike Mondays or embrace them with all you have. And once again, it comes down to how you manage your time.

Now if you're new around here, let me just tell you before I lose you, I teach time management a little different (ok, a lot different) than your average Jo out there. First of all, I don't teach time MANagement, I teach time MOMagement. There's a difference. Moms are pretty damn good at managing their for other people and things already. They're not as good at prioritizing their own goals and needs though. So, they don't usually need the perfect spreadsheet template or wall hanging calendar to get organized, although-yes those tools can absolutely be helpful. They need lots of mom specific mindset shifts, multitasking life hacks to get the jobs done, and freedom from mom guilt to actually all these tips and not get stuck feeling badly they're not reading Johnny another bedtime story.

When you MOMage your time, you create more fulfillment, less stress and a love for Mondays like you never imagined you could have before. 

No, you don't need to quit your job and start a business, although if that's what you want to do, momaging your time can absolutely help you get there. I grew my business alongside my corporate career for three years before ultimately becoming a full time entrepreneur.

You don't even need to feel like you have full control over your schedule to be able to momage your time #likeaboss. 

You simply need to start prioritizing what matters and forgetting what doesn't. 

How do you know if you’re prioritizing what matters?

How do you know if you’re using your time effectively?

How do you know if you’re in a place where you’re genuinely living your core values, living your best life?

How do you feel about Mondays? How do you feel about any day at that?

When you begin this simple step of prioritizing what matters, it's important to first know what your priorities even are. Do you know already? If you don't, I'll help you get started here:

My health

My family

My relationship with my spouse/partner (if applicable)

My work

My goals

My friendships

My home

Before we dive into the rest of this exercise, I want to make sure you understand the importance of your health and why it MUST be on this list, if not the first thing on this list. In order to tell you about this, I’m going to share a quick story with you about why this became my most important priority and why it should be yours, too, above everyone and everything in your life.

Years ago, I went to a women’s circle led by an incredible female therapist. She is a former yoga instructor, the most Zen mother I’ve ever met, an inspirational human and a downright knockout physically. Basically, she is goals, and I am so here for anything this woman has to say. She asked everyone in the group to write down their values. Everyone did and a few minutes later we were asked to share. There were a lot of beautiful words revealed, all of which anyone could easily argue are important and probably should be a top priority in anyone’s life. Yet, no one, not one person listed their health. Literally no one.

The leader stopped once we’d all had our turn to share and challenged us about this. We were all confused. Well, yes, of course, health is important, but more important than patience? More important than generosity? More important than ambition? And then, she said something I will never forget.

“If your health is not your number one priority, you can’t be any of those things to their full potential.”

Talk about a mind-blowing moment. WOW. If you want to be a patient mother, you need to feel your best. If you want to spend time volunteering and helping others, you need to feel your best. If you want to have the energy and motivation to ambitiously grow your business, you guessed it. You need to feel your best. And you can only feel your best when you’re taking care of your health. Think about it. On days where you’re under the weather or feel mentally drained, you don’t deliver the output you’d hoped for. You either physically can’t or it feels so incredibly hard to focus or create or even think. You’re not your best self. If you’re not prioritizing your health, you can count on the fact that you won’t be able to prioritize anything else to its full potential. And if you don't feel your best, you sure as hell aren't going to wake up on a Monday excited to slay the day and week ahead. 

When I talk about health, I talk about three main components of your health: your physical health, your mental health, and your emotional health. These are the three areas of health you need to ensure are being prioritized daily if you want to maximize your productivity and quality of life in everything you do.

Because I'm super practical and because I can appreciate a good life hack, here are some ways to prioritize each of the areas of your life to ensure you're honoring your physical, mental and emotional health daily.

Physical health: First and foremost, move your body. This doesn’t need to be an hour-long sweat fest. It can be a 15- or 20-minute walk outside. It can be a quick YouTube workout you do at home. It can be taking the stairs every chance you get instead of the elevator. It can also be things like eating three vegetables a day. It can be drinking half your body weight in ounces of water. It can be limiting or even eliminating your sugar or alcohol intake. It’s your decision, but it needs to be a daily priority.

Mental health: What does taking care of your mental health look like? It looks like stepping away from work and actually taking a break and NOT filling that break with scrolling social media, but with something that supports your mental health in a positive way. Maybe it’s listening to your favorite podcast (maybe that’s the Mama Work It podcast), maybe it’s reading a book or watching a documentary or laughing with a friend or maybe it’s just listening to a really good song or playlist and letting your mind get lost in that.  But again, it needs to be a daily priority.

Emotional health or spiritual health or soul health, whatever you want to call it. To me, this can be the hardest one for people to actually commit to. Why? Because the world is really noisy. The world is really busy. And you are really busy. You can justify a workout. You can justify listening to your favorite podcast. You can’t always justify to yourself that you have the time and space to meditate or journal or pray or even to pause and take some deep breaths. It feels extra. It feels uncomfortably slow. It feels like it’s not a necessary priority sometimes. But trust me when I say, it might be the most important part of your health to prioritize daily above all else.

Ok, so all this sounds easy, but you and I both know all of this is also a lot easier said than done. When push comes to shove, you may talk the talk, but not actually walk the walk in prioritizing your health in these three areas every single day. It may feel like you have zero time to make any of it happen. It may feel like you’ll get it for a day and then the next day comes along, and you’re off the wagon. So, I'll share one more tip with you on how you actually make it a priority every day and keep that momentum going, even on days that feel hard.

Write down your daily health goals. In 2020, I knew I needed to get better at prioritizing my health if I ever wanted to wake up and love a Monday (or any day of the week for that matter). I was under a lot of stress (as many moms were) juggling work life, mom life, wife life, PANDEMIC QUARANTINE life with four little kids at home. So, I took this life changing practice and popped it into a journal/planner for moms to ensure a tool existed that could support women in prioritizing what mattered in a simple, fool-proof way. Word to Your Mother: A Mama’s Guide to Journal Today & Slay Tomorrow was created and has helped hundreds of women to date to do just that. 

               I can’t promise you using this tool or prioritizing your health will make you start loving Mondays as much as I do, but I know you might hate them a little less at the very least.