
Bare Minimum Mondays
When I first started my business, I dreamt about never having the Sunday Scaries ever again.
I didn’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn to commute to an office job. Or sprint to catch the bus in time for my monotonous morning classes.
I was my own boss now, baby, and I get to choose what I want to do!
For the first few months, I really was living the dream.
I’d spring out of bed without the help of caffeine, grateful to have all this white space in my calendar to unleash my creativity. And I’d leverage that dopamine hit to tick even more things off my to-do list.
Nowadays, it looks like a different story.
Lately, I’ve been feeling torn over all the different directions I want my copywriting business and life to go.
My mind is a chaotic abyss filled with all the audacious goals I want to achieve. The things I could and should be doing to get there. And all the tasks I’ve yet to complete feel overwhelming and never-ending.
So I’ve found myself defaulting to unhealthy patterns from my student days:
Numbing out as much as I can during the weekend by deep-cleaning the house.
Staying up late to binge whatever new drama or psychological thriller Apple TV and HBO Max have released.
Doom-scrolling TikTok and Reddit to distract me from the fact I haven’t made as much progress as I’d like.
But when Monday morning rolls around and Ben (an annoyingly chipper morning person) flings open the curtains to blind me with the morning sun —
The floodgates lift and I’m instantly inundated with thoughts of everything I’ve yet to do.
“Mondays are for crushing it,” says my internal programming.
“For getting ahead and making a dent in the to-do list because, lady, there’s less than 6 months till the end of the year and we’re nowhere close to where we want to be yet. So get moving!”
You’d think this motivational pep talk would get me up and at ‘em.
But all this pressure – from me to me – only dials up the resistance to a max and turns my body into lead weights so I don’t feel like moving.
And before I’ve even taken a sip of my Dirty Chai, I feel behind.
The rest of Mondays usually looks like me beating myself up for not doing enough, trying to catch-up, and buckling under the weight of everything.
Rinse and repeat the next day, the next week, the next month.
But then I discovered the concept of Bare Minimum Mondays by Marisa Jo Mayes.
Essentially, it’s where you cut yourself some slack and only commit to doing the least amount possible to get through the day.
Think: 2 or 3 tiny tasks max that’ll help you move the needle on your business or life.
This is not about crushing your goals or getting ahead. Or being lazy, either.
It’s about reducing expectations, unshackling yourself from the weight of perfectionism, and narrowing your tasks down so you feel light enough to get things done.
AKA do more by doing less.
When I heard this, I felt instant relief.
There was no pressure for me to crush Mondays by knocking off five tasks for my business, maintain a clean house, or save the world by 5pm.
I can ease into the week and just be.
So after a terrible case of the Sunday Scaries last week (made worse by a Black Mirror binge), I tried Bare Minimum Mondays for myself.
I sank onto the couch and sipped my Dirty Chai sloow.
I asked my creativity what she wanted to create today and followed her lead.
I committed to only three small (but needle-moving) tasks I had to get done.
I didn’t beat myself up because it was already midday and all I’d done was journal and answer some emails.
I said, “Great, look much I’ve done” and committed to doing a little more.
Not because I had to. But because I wanted to.
And staring off Mondays with ^that energy actually fuels me to do more throughout the week with ease and excitement.
It’s even brought back the thrill and passion of being my own boss, minus the crippling weight of pressure and perfectionism.
So if you’ve been dragging your feet when it comes to work, dealing with a perpetual case of the Sunday Scaries, or looking to add more light & creative energy to your week —
Take Bare Minimum Mondays out for a spin and see what happens
Keen to see what Bare Minimum Mondays really look like in action? I made a 2 min video vlogging my entire experience here.
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