Everyone has had a bad case of the Monday’s at some point (or at many points) in their life. For most people, the word “Monday” means waking up at the crack of dawn to go to work/school all day, only to come home and prepare for the full week still ahead. 2016 PV graduate and current University of Iowa student Allison Ocel said, “I think people hate Monday’s because they have to go back to school after the fun weekend they had.” It’s true Monday’s can be very daunting–if you let them.

The first step to easing your way into the workweek is by preparing for it the night before. Getting out of bed on a Monday morning is much easier when you know all you have to do is get dressed and brush your teeth. Don’t let yourself go to bed Sunday night until you have your bags packed, your clothes for Monday laid out, and your homework finished.

The next crucial part to preparing for Monday is relatively simple: sleep. Teenagers need between eight and 10 hours of sleep each night. While finding eight free hours every night is no easy task during most of the week, this isn’t usually the case on a Sunday night. Take advantage of the opportunity to catch up on sleep by getting at least some of your homework done on Friday or Saturday. To improve the quality of your sleep, try not to look at any screens within an hour of going to bed.

If shutting off your phone is just too hard, use a filter that blocks out the harmful blue light responsible for sleep loss. On the iPhone, there is a feature called “Night Shift” that can solve this problem. If you want your iPhone to automatically use Night Shift from sunset until sunrise; go to Settings, Display & Brightness, Night Shift, turn on “Scheduled,” and select “From Sunset To Sunrise.”

Getting a good night’s sleep on Sunday will help you feel well-rested on Monday and make a big difference in your ability to work through the day. “When you have a habit of going to bed earlier on Sunday nights in high school, it is a lot easier to carry it on into college. This is especially important because classes aren’t mandatory in college, so you have to motivate yourself to go every morning,” Ocel explained.

Feeling prepared and rejuvenated will make Monday’s more bearable, but you may still find yourself dwelling on the fact that it’s only the beginning of a long week. If this is the case, try making Monday a fun day. Plan a fun activity each Monday to give yourself something to look forward to. Maybe every Monday morning, you and a friend have a coffee date. Or perhaps Monday is your day to go shopping, hit the gym, or try a new restaurant. Associating Monday with something exciting can help you forget what day of the week it is.
PV Girls’ Cross Country coach Josh Hoffman put it best when he told the team, “Being miserable because it’s Monday means you are choosing to spend one-seventh of your life feeling miserable.” Make the most of your Monday’s; they are a significant part of your life.