I love Monday mornings. There, I said it.
In a sea of anti-Monday memes I always feel like a bit of an odd duck. But one of my favourite parts of the week is the day with the bad reputation! There’s something “fresh start” aboutMondays. Something that feels like new opportunities and a clean slate.
So, I thought it might be fun to share my Monday morning routine with you all. You never know, I might just convert one of you Monday-haters ;)
First things first… clean space = clean mind
The first thing I do when I get up on a Monday is do a bit of a “space reset.” Collect any glasses and coffee cups that we left out the night before, make my bed, toss on a load of washing and do a quick tidy. Most importantly, I make sure my desk is clean. I’m one of those people who cannot fully concentrate in a messy environment.
Monday Morning MVP: coffee
Next, I make myself a coffee and sit down at my desk. I take a moment to enjoy my drink and let my brain wake up a bit. I’m not really a morning person and I don’t start my day super early. It’s a good day if I’m up by 8am. Thankfully my job allows for that!
Reflect (forward and backward)
I take a few minutes to reflect both on my goals and dreams (sometimes I free write and other times I think). Then I look back through the work I completed the week before, which is all tracked in a spreadsheet and productivity journal. Here I make note of my wins (very important, as I never used to do this and always felt like I wasn’t achieving anything) and I make a note of what tasks were not completed.
Review monthly tasks & translate into weekly tasks
I go over my monthly tasks (which are broken down from my overarching yearly goals) to figure out what needs to be done. I then determine my top 5 tasks for the week, which are the things I will ensure are completed. This usually revolves around writing deliverables.
Then the second category of tasks are secondary things that I would like to have completed. The “nice to have” portion of my week.
Things that usually end up on my weekly list:
Word count (if I want to write 500,000 words in 2019, I need about 42,000 per month or 10,500 per week)
WIP project management: revisions, edits, plotting, synopses, submissions etc.
Writing business: newsletters, blog posts, social media, taxes, emails etc.
Other: travel admin, reading, community involvement etc.
What needs to be done today?
Then the same process happens again to figure out what needs to be done today. By this stage I have a very clear idea of my tasks and how that wraps up to my overall goals, so it takes usually less than a minute to write down my daily to-do list. These tasks are also written in priority order with a “top 5.” This means my daily word count goal is almost always at the top.
Start with #1
By tackling the most important thing first, I give the important things the freshest, most mentally clear part of the day. Using this approach, my writing output has increased in both volume and consistency.
Why not Sundays?
I know a lot of people like to have this kind of reset on a Friday afternoon or Sunday to be prepared for the following week ahead of time. Personally, I’m working on preserving my time off (something I have been pretty rubbish at in the past) and so I find this approach capitalizes on my Monday-Lovin’ mindset and stops me from thinking about work over the weekend.
But you do you! If this sounds like a great end of day activity for a Friday or Sunday night, then go for it. I hope your next Monday is happier and more productive!