Tuesday Morning Hangovers

Yep. It's Tuesday morning and you didn't get half of what you wanted to accomplish on Monday completed. Such is the life of well-laid plans and constant interruptions.

Although Monday mornings have a cult following of disgust and stress and coffee mugs and funny memes - as a day of business, I often despised Tuesday mornings more. The hangover of a bursting list of unfinished objectives was often so defeating.

It took me many years to step back and view the beginning of the week a little differently.

Monday - The Day of Gathering

Depending on the speed of your data systems, you either start your Monday off gathering what info you can to begin your analysis of the week prior or you start taking action on what you do know while you wait for the rest of the data to become available.

I've worked with real-time dashboards and analytics and I've worked with lagging reports that leave you hanging most of the day. You have to adjust your game plan to your system unless you are in a position to change that system and it's timing.

I used to begin my Monday with the trap of expecting to get two days of work done and I never delivered. When I started viewing Monday as a day of gathering and planning rather than a day of only execution, both my Monday and Tuesday mornings got better.

Tuesday - The Day to Get It Done

Multiple studies support the fact that Tuesday is the most productive day of the week in the workforce.

So while you may not have completed as much as you had hoped to yesterday, you, along with the majority of the working world, gathered the data you needed and planned appropriately to make today incredibly productive. Don't take away from the day ahead by starting from a place of guilt and defeat.

If you regularly start your Tuesdays off with a Monday hangover, take a step back and analyze your own expectations of the first day of your work week. Picture where you want to be at the end of Tuesday morning and work backwards from there.

If you have knocked out your urgent Monday items, if you have a solid game plan for your week, and if you're already taking action on the game plan - you most likely have a Saturday night of satisfaction and accomplishment coming your way. So enjoy it!

Makes you wonder how bad Mondays can be and how inspired people are on Tuesdays.