If you haven’t heard the phrase “Sunday scaries,” you might still have experienced them. If you say you’re having the Sunday scaries, it’s just another way of saying you’re having anxiety about the week that’s coming up. They’re called the Sunday scaries because Sunday is usually the beginning of a new week at work or just another week in your life. Avoiding the Sunday scaries can be really hard to do because they seem inevitable. But there are a few ways to look at your life and say goodbye to the Sunday scaries forever.
Make a Timed List
I learned this trick in a therapy session in sixth grade and it has stuck with me for this long: Make a to-do list of every single thing you need to do. No matter how small or big, just make it. Next to the task, put the maximum amount of time it will take. All of a sudden, you realize the maximum number of hours that will be spent doing the “yuck” tasks and you also can rest in knowing that the tasks probably won’t take as long as you think. I have been employing this trick for over ten years now and it may be my favorite thing I’ve learned in therapy.
Stick to Your List
If you make to-do lists or have a way of keeping track of your tasks in another way, stick to those tasks and don’t make any more. Yes, be a functional human and be flexible — shit happens and sometimes you need to spend an hour cleaning your house or helping your kids out with their school work, but in general, try not to distract yourself from the things you actually need to do. Avoiding distractions and a lot of mini tasks will help you finish your big things first and also make your week a lot more manageable.
Prepare
If you have a job that requires you to do some work or preparation on the weekend, try not to leave it all until Sunday night at 8 o’clock. Leaving tasks to the last minute stresses you out in general, but they also make the weekend feel like it’s racing toward a storm of never-ending work. There’s a Gilmore Girls quote where Rory says, “I like to get my weekend homework done and out of the way by Saturday so then I can do extra credit stuff on Sunday.” While the overload of work is not the idea, the heart of the quote is do what you can before Sunday so you can spend time doing better things later.
Plan Fun Things
I am very ambitious and am a zero or one hundred girl, so I try to have at least one fun thing a day to look forward to. The fun thing doesn’t have to be anything crazy — sometimes it’s a Cookout milkshake or an extra hour on my walk with an audiobook (I’m devastatingly boring). You might want to talk to your partner about doing a weekly date night or even asking them to surprise you with an outing once a week. But when you’re looking at your upcoming week, make sure that it’s not all work and no play.
GYST
I love the phrase GYST (getting your shit together) because it’s just so helpful. If I know I’m going into a heavy or a stressful week, I try to prepare for it by doing the necessary tasks that are required about every week. I try to do a GYST day once a week where I empty my trash, meal prep, go grocery shopping, fill up my gas tank, and paint my nails. None of these tasks are what I would call “fun,” but if I didn’t devote a whole day to doing them I would have to do them throughout the week when I know I’ll probably be busy and more stressed out.
Work it Out
I am the biggest believer in having a physical outlet for stress. I started doing kickboxing classes on YouTube whenever I get stressed and I feel so much better after I’ve punched some imaginary things. Find a way to get the stress that is built up in you out and you will feel like there’s a weight off your shoulder and you’ll probably feel better in general!
Check Your Dread
The Sunday scaries are completely natural to get and almost everyone struggles with them from time to time. But if you’re starting to really suffer from them or your dread is increasing, maybe take note of that and try to figure out if there’s anything particularly toxic in your life. You might have overscheduled yourself or your kids. You could also not be in a good place with your job and need to take a step back or even sideways and try to change the way you’re working. Understand that it’s natural to not look forward to Mondays, but constant dread of the next week will probably lead to burnout or something worse, so make sure that you’re taking care of yourself.
Affirm Yourself
So often, we get stressed out and then we get down on ourselves. It’s a spiral of I have so much to do — it’s going to be such a hard week — can I even do this? — I can’t do this — this is too hard — I give up. Nip that in the bud before it even starts. Go into the week affirming yourself and believing that you can do the things that are assigned to you. Give yourself grace too and go into every new week knowing that even if you don’t accomplish everything on your monster list, you are no less of a person and you haven’t failed at anything. The things you do and accomplish don’t define your worth and your value. Some weeks you might get everything done before Wednesday and kick butt. Other weeks, you might have to work a little harder. That’s okay and completely natural. Go into the week fiercely loving yourself and all the things you do. You’re killing it.
You might not love every Monday and some weeks may look better than others, but just if you try to pace yourself and take life one day at a time the week will become less daunting and you’ll find joy in the tasks that you do.
Do you have the Sunday scaries sometimes? How do you combat them? Share below!
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