Beat The Sunday Blues With 8 Simple Steps!

Now that the best parts of the holidays are remnants in your mind and on your Instagram profile – you need to tune in to real life to get back to work or get the kids ready for the transition after a long summer break. The jetlag coupled with the untimely eating and binging all the culinary goodness does not make the task ahead easier but we’re here for help as always!

We’ve managed to slumber into a laziness of sorts. Ideally, when you come back from a holiday is when your mind should be refreshed and ready to tune into work, however, most of us are giddy with vacation fever and cannot reset.

All these tips will come as handy to you to be sure that you are refreshed for the transition between vacation and the real-life hustle.
Sunday Scaries are very real after three (or more) days of zero work, emails, and meetings. The Scaries sometimes occur after a regular weekend, but when they appear after a long weekend? They can feel 1000 times worse.

We at Edition are here to help you with an 8 – step guide to getting into your best working modjo!

We’ve managed to slumber into a laziness of sorts. Ideally, when you come back from a holiday is when your mind should be refreshed and ready to tune into work, however, most of us are giddy with vacation fever and cannot reset. For those, we’ve put together a nice list of simple things to do in order to prepare for getting back to the routine – whether you’re working full-time or motherhood-ing or even a homemaker.

1. Prepare to arrive back at home destination or on “work mode” from a staycation a minimum of two days prior to starting work so since you’re probably reading this at the tail end of the weekend, and you can’t exactly take a time machine back to the beginning, this is good to keep in mind for the next little staycation or holiday. We’ve found that what helps is getting prepped to sort out the big projects out of the way before you go on holiday instead of being tempted to rush off putting that ‘out of office’ response – deal with the big stuff and check off as much off the checklist before you leave – which will make the night or day before returning to work much less daunting!

2. Incorporate some exercise – whatever makes you feel good, whether its weight training or grabbing a class – following an app for running. Simply just doing some yoga asanas (provided you’re following correct postures) – it is although highly recommend that in order to release those endorphins you need to get the heart rate pulsating – so try to aim for something that does tire you out, even those this may seem like counter productive but trust us, even one session can put your brain in the right mindset for work / household chores post holiday!

3. Plan something fun a day before – the day before work doesn’t have be scary Sunday like – provided you’ve prepared your to do list for the week, prepped your work bag, plan a session with some friends or just get out of the house with someone, for a drive, get some fun time in to lighten the spirits – trust us, this helps every time we need to get back to the grind because it prevents you from thinking too much and being too anxious about your
first day back!

4. Practise mindfulness – be more accepting of things around you, instead of moping about your weekend, acknowledge the good parts of it, some people grow from their holiday and weekend experience, some people just learn how to relax and be rested mentally and spiritually.
There are many applications for iOS and Android which you can download to your phone which can help you practise mindfulness on your daily commute to work, whether it’s the blaring of horns or being stuck endlessly at I.I. Chundrigar Road, you have apps like Calm, Headspace and plenty of podcasts with morning meditations (obviously not for those who drive to work themselves), but many motivational talks are available just for that purpose. Remember, that the only way to practise mindfulness is not only meditation or passive thinking, the whole idea is to be present and mindful of what you are doing, or what some may also call ‘living in the moment’ – so take some time the evening or day before to meal prep for the week, to organise your to do list, to make a weekly goal plan, organise your office bag and all others things you can think of that will get you ready without any stress in the morning.

5. Start eating healthy – yes, while you can rely on that morning caffeine trip through coffee or tea, and by all means, still continue doing that – but ensure to eat healthy before you get back from your holiday. This is assuming that you have eaten to your heart’s desire, all kinds of things and odd times of the day. One of the best ways to clean the system us to focus on eating proper three meals a day (don’t skip breakfast the morning before work!)

6. Self Care is important! – whether that means indulging in a massage, facial, simply just DIY face masking or watching something you like on TV. Do it! It’ll be both something you can practise every week and not feel stressed about missing out on during the week, leave your little toddler with your husband or with your parents / in laws for a while and just take an hour of self care for yourself. However, we must add, the less the screen time included in the self care regimen the better!

7. Sleep early – whether you’re heading back to work or preparing your little one to head back to school. Make sure you eat your dinner a little bit earlier (minimum 2 hours before you go to bed) – and retire to bed early so as not to be groggy and grumpy when you wake up, rather more energetic and ready to last whatever the next day throws at you.

8. Wake up earlier than you need to – on the first day back, it is so important either to come to the office earlier than you usually do, or if you don’t work / work from home and still have multifold errands to do throughout the day, it is advisable you get a head start into your day. With experience, we can say that if you’re coming into work from your own holiday and everyone else’s has been in the office while you’ve been gone, then you’ll have to catch up to get back in the game!

In general, just make sure your transition back to work from a weekend, long weekend, holiday is disciplined, but smooth and organised. Don’t push yourself, otherwise you’ll burn out before you know it, remember all of this preparation at the end of the day is for your own mental health.