THIS BLOG’S ROI: Bare Minimum Mondays: What the heck is it, and what is my take on this new trend?
Time to read: 5 minutes
COACHING MOMENT
So what is “Bare Minimum Monday?”
According to Vice.com, Bare Minimum Mondays are new workplace trends where employees do the least possible work on Mondays to avoid burnout during the remaining workdays.
Bare Minimum Mondays advocates for getting through the most dreaded day of the week by doing the bare minimum at work — nothing more and nothing less.
Now for my take on Bare Minimum Mondays….
While part of me wants to absolutely lose my mind on this topic and shake my head at the rallying cry and acceptance of doing the bare minimum….*cough cough* complacency…..I want to focus instead on the need for this trend because I feel it’s where the real problem lies.
If Mondays are the most dreaded day of the week for you, I hate to be the bearer of the honest truth, but you are playing the game of life wrong.
There is a whole community of people who love Monday and can’t wait for the week to start.
So what is the difference between these two different groups and viewpoints about Monday?
The people who hate Monday, probably dislike their job and are probably waking up to start their week doing something they are not passionate or excited about. I know this because for years of my life, I felt this same way and despised waking up on Monday.
And I can’t even say I fully hated my job. I just got stuck in the rat race of doing the same ol thing everyday over and over and wasn’t allowed the freedom or creativity to bring my passion and ideas to life.
The group of people who LOVE Mondays, are people who can’t wait to get to work because they enjoy what they do and feel like their work is making a real difference. It’s no surprise to me that now the owner of my own coaching and speaking business, I’m now part of this group.
I think we can all agree that doing the bare minimum is not exactly the best strategy to stand out and get ahead at your job or career. So if that’s the case and you are willing to sabotage your own chances at getting ahead…….isn’t that a big enough sign that you are at the wrong job?
Yes, I know The Bare Minimum supporters are going to try and tell me it’s about mental health and easing into the week after a weekend full of fun.
However again, I’m going to argue that if your weekend was spent in such a way that you need to basically treat Monday like a hangover day to ease back into a work week, you might want to start by evaluating your weekends.
Your weekends clearly aren’t restful, rejuvenating, and reenergizing you with enough of the right things.
Please don’t get me wrong, I love me some weekends. I love the free time to relax more, see friends and family, sleep a bit more, spend some time doing more of the hobbies and things you enjoy. Maybe that’s spending more time with your family and kids. Maybe that’s hanging with friends.
All I’m saying is that if you’re more beat on Monday than you are on Friday you’re playing this game wrong, you’re spending your weekends wrong, and you’re in a job or career that you aren’t passionate about.
It’s no coincidence to me that back when I was unfulfilled with my job, I also partied and drank more, felt the need to say yes to everything, and spent my weekends doing a lot of things that helped me “blow off some steam” from a hard week. When the reality was, I just wanted any escape from how miserable I was Monday through Friday.
You think Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk are dreading Mondays?
What? Too unrealistic?
Ok fine. Let’s use a different example.
Do you think Kelly, who runs her own bakery and coffee shop, or Dylan the freelance painter, or even Joe the fitness instructor have the ability to show up and do the bare minimum? Yes, potentially all these people may own their own business and that may help their excitement level. But don’t let yourself take the easy way out and act like that’s not a possibility for you, too. The only difference between you and them is that they had the guts to leave the hamster wheel and take the path less traveled. They decided to pursue their passion and take a shot at living their dream job.
This next statement is going to rub some people the wrong way, but doing the bare minimum is a privilege that not everyone has. There are tons of people who can’t afford to do anything less than their absolute best for fear of losing their job and not receiving a much needed paycheck. I bet if you ask them, they couldn’t fathom a Bare Minimum Monday.
Let’s take a different perspective on this:
What if your local firemen and women decided to adopt Bare Minimum Monday? Better hope you don’t need them on a Monday, cause they may be taking some time to ease into their week and don’t really want to rush on over, carry any heavy hoses, or run into your burning house today. Tuesday would be better for them when they are fully eased in.
Ridiculously scary thought, right?
What if your nanny or babysitter watching your toddler decided to adopt this mentality while they were in charge of the safety of your child.
Pretty wild thought, huh?
I’m not saying this to scare you, I’m saying this to prove the point that this Bare Minimum Monday is a privilege for people with job security and cushy back up plans.
So how about we really focus on where the need for this all stems from…..
YOU’RE NOT EXCITED ABOUT YOUR JOB!
PERIOD.
Writer Annie Dillard famously said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” For many of us, a large portion of our days is spent at work; in fact, the average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime.
90,000 HOURS!!!!!!!
Whether you have leaned into the Bare Minimum Monday trend or this is the first you are hearing about it, I really want you to get brutally honest with yourself about why you hate Mondays.
And if you are saying that easing into Monday is for your mental health, it’s time to take a cold hard look at how you are spending your weekends, and confront anything that is leaving you so energy “hungover” that you aren’t ready to dive in on Monday.
I know this take will get some pushback and I’m completely open to it. I’m perfectly aware this is just my opinion.
Perhaps it’s my mid-thirties talking and being raised in a different generation where my parents, coaches, teachers, and bosses sure as hell wouldn’t have tolerated me taking the first quarter of any game, let alone the work week, off.
Maybe it was my freshman basketball coach, Coach Ragasa, who benched my ass for the whole first quarter of our next game after I missed a practice that week to go snowboarding with the snowboarding club.
Because of that lesson and feeling how much I let my team down that game, I never missed a single practice the entire rest of my high school career playing two varsity sports. Not one.
I even received an unexpected award my senior year with two other kids for perfect attendance. Definitely not the coolest award when you’re in HS and I honestly didn’t even know I was eligible. I didn’t love school. I just showed up because I never wanted to miss another practice.
Personally, I’m grateful for those lessons. That type of mindset has served me time and time again throughout my life.
To the younger generation reading this, and for those that want a fast track or advantage to get ahead….
DOMINATE MONDAYS.
Outwork everyone in the office on Monday with your energy and productivity and watch how quickly you start to stand out and get recognized.
While everyone else is limping into Monday, you hit the ground running and the advantage will be yours.
To everyone else, I hope you spend your 90,000 hours doing something that excites you. If that’s not your current situation, it’s never too late to make a change. 90,000 hours is just way too much time in your life for not being excited or feeling purpose in your work.
I’d love to hear your feedback on this, and if your company has addressed this topic at all.
For those who start Monday prepared, organized, and ready to take the lead, the path to the top just got easier.
In Case You Missed it
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Best Fact I’ve Learned Recently:
Our Earth’s natural “heartbeat” rhythm is the frequency of 7.83 Hz, also known as the
“Schumann Resonance” …did you know that this is also the natural frequency of a dog’s brain? Dogs are naturally grounded to the earth’s rhythm, which is why proximity to pups can help regulate the brain waves of a person who is stressed out.
Final thought
I’m never gonna be a big fan of doing the bare minimum in anything. It’s just not how I’m wired. I’ve literally built my whole career helping people avoid complacency and find more success and fulfillment in their life.
For me, it’s less about just Monday, and more about how slippery of a slope that approach is, that leads straight to complacency and settling in so many other areas of your life.
HELL NO, I’m not signing up for that, and personally, I don’t think you should either.
Your Coach,
Brett Eaton