When job seekers reach out to us at Spectrum Staffing, an employment agency in New Jersey, it’s often because they are burnt out at their current employers. Many employees experience what is known as the “Sunday Scaries” or a feeling of dread or anxiety as they face the prospect of returning to the work week as the weekend comes to a close. The antidote to the Sunday Scaries is to reduce uncertainty and take back control, which can be accomplished via a weekly planning session early on Sundays. Planning out your upcoming week reduces stress by improving focus, time management, and productivity during your workdays.
Eliminate the Sunday Scaries by Planning Your Workweek on Sunday Morning
Brainstorm Everything You Need to Do
When you’re facing the Sunday Scaries, your brain is likely swirling with all the things, big and small, that you need to tackle in the week ahead. Don’t worry about getting organized at this point – just focus on getting these thoughts out of your head. Perform what’s known as a “mind dump” – and then write down all the work-related thoughts going through your mind. Once they’re on paper (or a digital document), you’ll have a starting point for your plan.
Prioritize Your Tasks
Take a look at everything you wrote down from your mind dump, and then identify the most important tasks. When determining your top priorities, consider both urgent or time-sensitive tasks, as well as tasks that will help make progress toward long-term projects or goals as well. Prioritizing your tasks ahead of time sets you up for a successful week because it will help you make clear decisions on how to best spend your time.
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Pencil Your Plans In
If it’s not on your schedule, it’s less likely to actually happen. Pencil your plans in on your calendar – determine which days you want to focus on particular tasks. Review your main priorities and work backward from them – for example, if a top priority is to have a report completed by Friday, break it down into smaller steps and schedule them for specific days (i.e., compile data on Monday, draft an outline Tuesday, complete a rough draft Wednesday, etc.)
Reflect and Visualize
When you’re in the midst of the Sunday Scaries, reflect on what typically contributes to the parts of the workweek you dread. Then, visualize how an ideal workweek would look to you. Consider the differences between the reality of your workweek, and how you would like it to be. Then, narrow down what changes you could make to improve your week to get you closer – for example, are you generally rushed in the morning whereas you would ideally like to get ready for work leisurely and calmly arrive at work? A solution could be to plan your meals and outfits for the week and start going to bed earlier, so you can wake up refreshed and with less to deal with in the morning.
Find new opportunities that are the best fit for you by working with Spectrum Staffing, a top employment agency in New Jersey. Our experienced team of staffing specialists has been matching candidates with the available jobs from our clients for more than 25 years. Get started today – search our current available positions.