When you come in to work on a Monday, has anyone ever told you:

Looks like someone’s got the case of the Mondays?

The Mondays, this loathsome plague, has made its way to nearly every workplace across the universe (Fact: Darth Vader blew up Aldeeran on a Monday). Draining the lifeblood of its hosts while creating unparalleled amounts of stress. It can affect any employee, manager, and has even been rumored to affect some CEO’s.

No one has been able to figure out the origin of the Mondays or why it chooses to affect us.

The symptoms of this dreaded virus:

• Physical (and emotional?) fatigue
• Being Bored At Work
• Consistently looking at the clock, hoping for the space-time continuum to crack and somehow allow your day to go faster than usual
• Thinking about other places that you would rather be at
• Ridiculously high stress levels
• Lack of awesomeness (it’s a thing)

Fear not! For I have found the solution to alleviate the Mondays and cure you from being bored at work…allowing you to have a productive and fun first day of the week.

1. Don’t Let Sunday Night Ruin Monday Morning – Get Sleep!

Sunday nights can very well be the cause of your Monday morning stress.

It may sound s
imple but a horrible night of sleep can definitely cause a high amount of stress throughout the day. The excess levels of stress causes your body to not function at full capacity, lowering response times and mental clarity.

Try sleeping at a decent hour and getting a good 8-9 hours of sleep.

The last thing you want is
to be the person in the Monday morning meeting that is not fully functional.

Waking up is something that you don’t fancy? Do you hate the sound of alarms on Monday morning (or any morning really)? There are a couple of high tech solutions to combat this early morning acoustic torture.

Like having a Sleep Cycle app  that measures sleep patterns. It sets soothing sounds to wake you up during your lightest sleep. Making every morning feel like you just woke up in a cloud with an angel above you playing the harp.

A well rested employee is better than a groggy one. So if you’re feeling a little tired at midday, get a quick cat nap.

Companies are beginning to embrace the notion of office naps, adding nap stations in their office. They find that it keeps people well rested and it has managed to boost productivity and keep employees happy.

2. A Walk Will Boost Your Performance

Hopefully you arrive to your workplace feeling well rested, rejuvenated, and glowing with energy.

So you open up your email and find out that you have quite the workload for the day. Like most, you attempt to complete multiple assignments at once. Within the first couple of hours of your workweek you’re beginning to do what is know as “multi task overload”, where you attempt to do too many things at once and end up being less efficient.

It has been found that being overworked is one of the most stressful occurrences in the workplace.

The best way to combat this is fairly simple: Go for a walk!

Make some time to plan out your day and find out how you’re going to take on some of the day’s tasks. If your office has a patio area, get out there and catch some fresh air. It has been proven that even a good five minutes of walking in the middle of your day is not only good for your health, but good for your mind as well.

So improve your mind while burning off a couple of calories!

3. Get Focused! Map Out Goals For The Week

One of the worst things you can do is not have any direction with your tasks.

Take some time from your day to set goals for yourself. Make sure that the goals you set help you complete your tasks for the day and make you a better person, employee, and leader.

More importantly, set attainable goals that will primarily focus on what you’re going to complete for the week and essentially make you a moreproductive person.

Make a game out of completing your goals.

If you reach the majority of the goals that you set, get yourself a treat. Whether it’s something like a “cheat meal” or having a nice spa day. Do something that will make you happy!

This is an effective motivational tool that will add an extra fun factor to your workweek. It will keep you up and running at the beginning week – and have you sprinting all the way to Friday,

So do work and have fun!

4. Don’t Be Bored At Work. Be Happy Instead

Here’s a little blog I wrote, It asked for people to enjoy their Mondays and don’t worry be happy.

Now, what’s causing the stress on Mondays and causing you to be bored at work? Another “plague” that has been affecting people at the workplace, is something known as the TGIF Syndrome. This is basically when people start anticipating and getting hyped for the weekend on the first day of the week.

Now, I’m not telling you not to get excited for your weekends, but you should definitely reconsider getting excited for it on the first day of the week.

Do things one day at a time and enjoy the moment. A great man once said:

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Your case of the Mondays doesn’t have to exist! The majority of stress is self-inflicted, so why not remove this feeling and start your week off to a good foot.

Remember, Monday is 1/7th of your life! So go into your office, high five somebody and kick some butt (But not literally, don’t go trying to boot someone’s bottom). You can always try starting your week off with some employee engagement activities.