A Cure for the Sunday Scaries
The week ahead doesn’t have to be so daunting
Laura Vanderkam, the time management expert who wrote Off the Clock and Juliet’s School of Possibilities, is here to answer your scheduling questions. Check back every week for more advice, and send your own productivity problems to asklaura@medium.com. (Your name will not be used.)
Dear Laura: I like my job, but every Sunday afternoon, I start to feel uneasy as I think about the week to come. Everything is in flux right now with everyone working from home, but once life returns to something approaching normal, I’d like to develop new routines so I can relax and enjoy the rest of my weekend. Any ideas?
The Sunday scaries — sometimes called the Sunday-night blues, or Sunday syndrome — are surprisingly common. A 2018 LinkedIn survey found that 80% of working American adults experience these Sunday worries, which often set in around late afternoon as you think about what’s waiting for you on Monday morning — whether that’s a tough commute or (these days) attempting to juggle conference calls while homeschooling your children.
For people who mostly like their jobs, these worries aren’t a sign that something larger is amiss. Instead, the problem is that when your brain converts to Monday mode on Sunday, you lose many hours of what could still be…
