For most students, Sunday nights are almost nightmarish. It’s the time when they think that the upcoming weekdays would be a decade long academic humdrum. They foresee endless class presentations, brainstorming sessions, makeup classes, quizzes and the like.

The perception of a restless Monday makes them fret and worry. This is usually called Monday anxiety on Monday blues.

Unlike other weekdays, getting ready for school on a Monday seems strange. You feel inclined to whine like a four-year-old child who has never been to school. You wish there were no Mondays and every week were to begin with ‘Tuesday’.

On Sunday night, you iron school uniform to perfection in order to camouflage your anxiety. You spend a restless night, dreading the start of the week.

Monday anxiety is not a myth and may overwhelm most of us. Luckily, there are some simple ways to counter it substantially.

Some of you may have already been applying these tips. For this exceptional lot, the upcoming suggestions will serve as reminders.

The rest of the readers can start afresh and follow these steps in order to minimise monday anxiety.

Don’t try to control the uncontrollable: Monday marks an imperative transition from holiday mode back to a regular routine. Obviously, you cannot write an urgent application to the school authorities requesting them to prolong the weekend. So you have to adapt to the inescapable change from weekend to working days.

Instead of fretting, tell yourself that party time is over. As fast as you switch out of the holiday mode, by and by your Monday anxiety will subside.

Get ample sleep: As you usually get up late on weekends, it is naturally irritating when the clock’s alarm stirs you up in the wee hours of Monday. Better go to bed early on Sunday night. Enough sleep helps to make sure you wake up with renewed vigour to overcome Monday anxiety.

Don’t sweat about the future: Anxiety intensifies when you have doubts about the future. For example, you sweat about a surprise physics test on Monday, or you expect makeup classes of chemistry the same day. These are the things you are not sure about. So when you stop over-thinking, any unseen situation cannot worry you.

Keep it simple: Assure yourself that Monday anxiety is nothing new. You have already ‘survived’ countless Mondays by now and will do so in the future as well. The key is to take everything on merit. Welcome the dawn of a new week with a grin and make your Monday as worthwhile as you can.

The crux of the discussion is that Monday anxiety is natural. And when we get the knack of tackling it, we not only have a pleasant beginning of a week but can also make tedious tasks easier for ourselves. As goes the saying, ‘Well begun is half done’.

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 27th, 2019