TGIM– Thank God It’s Monday

Friday is the Beyonce of weekdays; The maple syrup on top of pancakes and the feeling you get when you see your food order coming towards your table.

Then there’s Monday. Monday is every cast member on Married At First Sight, yelling and screaming, the Turkish Delight in the Favourites box and when you see your food order coming, but it’s not your food. It’s the table next to you. 

Poor Monday get’s bad rap. Yes, of course, Monday’s are hard. They signal the week ahead– the long hours and work at hand. All the while, counting down til Friday, knowing that’s one step closer to the weekend. But if you’re not saying TGIM (Thank God It’s Monday)– there’s a problem.

Don’t get me wrong, weekends are the best, spending time with family and friends, and not having to see grumpy-Susan every morning, whose sandwich you accidentally stole from the fridge #sorrysusie.

But think about this for a moment– we spend five days, 40 hours and 2,400 minutes at work per week. That’s a heck of a lot of time to be spending at a place we literally can’t wait to get out of every Friday.

So I ask you, why are you so excited to run out of the office each week? Why are you buying into a culture that basically says, ‘I hate my life 70% of the time’. Instead, why don’t you say Thank God It’s Monday? In fact, a study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that ‘Monday Blues’ are a myth, and that people’s mood on a Monday are no different to their moods throughout the week (excluding Saturday and Sunday of course).

If you’re reading this right now, and know that you’ll never be able to say that phrase, maybe you should be rethinking your workplace, rethinking your life and rethinking how you want to live. 

Because the fact is, we can’t change that we will have to work five days, 40 hours and 2,400 minutes at work each week. What we can change is how to enjoy that time more. Next Monday, I urge you to say TGIM and if you can’t do that, you might have some thinking to do.

References: 

1. Arthur A. Stone, Stefan Schneider & James K. Harter (2012) Day-of-week mood patterns in the United States: On the existence of ‘Blue Monday’, ‘Thank God it’s Friday’ and weekend effects,The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7:4, 306-314, DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2012.691980

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