Hey everyone and welcome back to the Easy English Podcast where we talk about all things language, life and sometimes Mondays.
Today we are going to look at a topic that most of us in our lives can relate to.
Why do people hate Mondays so much?
Think about it.
Mondays have this terrible reputation.
You wake up, you drag yourself out of bed and suddenly it feels like the weight of the world is back on your shoulders.
But why?
Is it really just because it's the start of our work week or school or our responsibilities?
Or is there something deeper going on?
Let's talk about it.
I got the idea for this topic because it's a Monday and I was thinking oh, another Monday, a full week to go.
And I know it's probably not good to think like that at the start of each week.
So I started to think about why Monday gets such a bad reputation.
Why does everyone say, thank God it's Friday, and when it's Monday, they go, ugh, Mondays.
So we're going to talk about a couple of aspects, and the first I like to call the emotional hangover.
And weekends are like these magical little bubbles of freedom for many people.
On a weekend you can probably sleep in later, meet up with friends, maybe just watch lots of your favorite TV shows and basically just do what you want.
I mean, within reason.
Of course we all have responsibilities and many of us have families and children etc.
But for a lot of us it's like a mini grief cycle, so a cycle of sadness every week.
You go from this thought of oh, it's the weekend, amazing I get to relax to Sunday thinking, oh no, I'm back at work tomorrow.
And then you think, hmm, maybe I can be sick and not go to work. to then acceptance.
So, okay, it's fine.
I will be back at work.
It's cool.
And then on Monday morning we think oh, we have five days to go again until we get to that nice relaxing weekend time.
It's a bit of a roller coaster.
The beginning of the weekend is a very high point where we think wow, two days off.
And then the end is worrying about going back to work.
And this could also be related to the culture of hustle.
And what I mean by that is the culture that in many societies and many countries we have built around work and productivity.
So for many of us, Monday isn't just a day.
It's a symbol.
It's the start of another week of hard work.
A reminder that there's emails to send, deadlines to hit and meetings that probably could have been emails instead of meetings.
It's almost like we have all decided that Monday is the official day of stress.
And I guess the memes and the jokes don't really help.
You can scroll through social media and all you can see is Monday blues.
I hit Monday and it's almost like we're all creating this image that Monday is terrible.
And the next point, I guess, is that there is a little bit of a science-y reason as to why Mondays can suck for a lot of people, why Mondays are bad for many people.
And it can be because over the weekend we're all guilty of messing up our sleep cycles and schedules.
So we might stay up very late on a Friday and then sleep in on a Saturday.
And by the time we get to Monday, our bodies are like, what are we doing here?
And this is called social jet lag.
And it's quite real, to be honest.
Your internal body clock, which makes us feel sleepy at certain times of the day and makes us feel great and awake at times of the day, is changed whenever we change our schedule.
So suddenly that 7am alarm feels terrible.
And I'm pretty guilty of this too.
I usually am up quite early for work, especially if I have to travel for work.
And then at the weekend, I like to sleep in.
I like to sleep a little bit later.
I like to catch up on sleep or so I thought.
But recently, in the last month, I have been trying to get up at the exact same time almost every day.
So even at the weekends.
And that is 7.30.
It's a good time for me.
And I'll get up at 7.30 even on a Saturday and a Sunday.
And what I've noticed is that on Monday, I feel so much better.
I don't feel so negative or tired in the morning time.
And also, this is coming from a person, me, who is not a morning person.
I really have to force myself to build this routine.
But the longer I've done it, the more energy I'm feeling each day.
I'm not constantly changing my sleep schedule.
So perhaps there is some truth to this.
And maybe it is one of the reasons why a lot of people feel so bad on a Monday and they're so negative about Monday.
So before we continue, just quickly, I want to mention that if you want to support me and the podcast, there is a Patreon link in the description below and you can check that out.
Okay, so is it really that bad?
You know, here's the thing.
Mondays themselves are not evil.
They're not bad.
It's just another day.
There's no difference really from Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
It's really our perspective, how we feel about that day, the mental image that we create in our heads.
And do you know what?
If you go into Monday expecting it to be terrible or bad, guess what?
It probably will be.
But if you're intentional and you think, right, I am going to start my week positively.
This is a new week.
It's new me.
I'm going to have a great week.
It can make a huge difference.
For example, you know, what if you made something to look forward to every Monday?
Perhaps you could have a special breakfast or taking some time to watch your favorite TV show after work.
Something quite small but meaningful.
This can really help make Mondays feel meaningful better and the more i've started to do this, to get up early and to be productive.
On monday mornings for myself, i personally like to read a book that i'm enjoying, maybe do some language learning.
I feel like i've started the week with some good progress and it creates a nice atmosphere and a good feeling for the rest of the week, And I would recommend trying to do something like that.
It can be a real positive impact on the start of your week.
And I'm quite curious, what is your relationship with Mondays?
Are you a Monday hater?
Or do you secretly love the fresh start at the beginning of the week?
So let me know in the comments or maybe send me a message or answer the poll if you're on Spotify.
And if you've got any tips for beating the Monday blues, do share them.
I think we could all use a little help turning this day, which we all seem to hate, into something more special.
So that's the main kind of topic I wanted to talk about today.
But I guess thinking about Monday, we can look at some of the other days of the week.
For example, Wednesday.
I think Wednesday is quite an interesting day because people start to feel, particularly in work, more positive.
They get to Wednesday and they think, oh, I'm halfway there.
It's almost the weekend.
And then when we get to Friday, everyone is positive and getting more relaxed, maybe not working as hard or working harder to try and get work finished for the weekend.
This mentality or idea that we need to live for the weekends and we hate work and hate Mondays.
I think it's quite negative, because people end up then only feeling happier at the weekend and during the week we feel worse.
So we definitely need to rethink how we feel about Mondays and about specific days, I think anyway, because it may be a sign of something more serious if we hit Mondays, we might actually dislike our job, for example.
And of course, not everyone has the privilege or the pleasure of doing a job that they love.
I mean, my job is tough.
I don't do this as a full time job.
I don't teach anymore as a full time job.
I have another job and of course, I prefer doing language teaching this project, the podcast and I do all this work extra on top of my job because I love it.
So yeah, of course you don't need to love your job.
But perhaps having that awful feeling on a Monday might be a sign that we need to make a change.
So thank you so much for listening to this episode.
I hope that something was interesting or useful from it today.
And do let me know, do you like Mondays or do you hate them?
Thank you for listening.
I have been Oliver from Easy English and I hope to see you again soon.
Have a wonderful rest of your day wherever you are.
Goodbye.
