Monday, Monday
As we continue our inexorable march towards spring, I find myself standing on the tarmac in Melbourne. The temperature is 4 degrees, the sun is shining, and a light breeze blows from the direction of the city. Glorious.
With the chaos of last week’s performances of Man of La Mancha (including the consumption of enough alcohol to keep Billy Ray Cyrus happy for a month), work was quite difficult. This week should give me a chance to refocus and catch up on everything. Two days in Melbourne to start the week should help; my efficiency seems to increase by about 60% when I’m not around the office.
The phenomenon of Mondayitis is one which has been puzzling me of late. Is this simply an invariable symptom of the human condition, or can we overcome the Monday blues on a personal level? For years I have been content to write Mondays off as a waste of time, however I am now starting to believe that perhaps there is hope yet.
Consider the working week. We are locked in to a pattern of anticipation; eagerly counting down the hours until 4pm Friday, when we can crack open a beer, fire off the last couple of emails for the week, and then hit the town. The rest of the weekend is invariably spent trying to do as little as possible, while hoping that time will somehow get stuck somewhere around 3:30pm Sunday afternoon so that we can spend the rest of our lives drinking tea in the sun. Sadly, this is yet to occur.
The problem at hand then becomes one of expectations. Once we accept that it is simply not feasible to have a productive Monday, we can take measures to use the time wisely. You know all those pointless meetings which sap your valuable time on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday? Reschedule for Monday! Weekly shopping, cleaning out your desk/inbox, conversations with HR - all these time-wasting exercises are perfect to start your week off.
Anyhow, I can’t stay around here all day; I’ve got reference material to alphabetise. Adieu!
August 25, 2008 12:17 pm 
