Monday Morning Motivation

Monday mornings are kind of a drag, right?  Garfield hates Mondays.  "Looks like someone's got a case of the Mondays."  You've just come off enjoying your weekend of relaxation, sleeping in, home repair, family togetherness, or whatever else makes you happy, and now that's over.

If you have trouble with Mondays, it could be that you're not happy with your job.  Having a job that you're excited to go to is a good way to get motivated and not actually dread the end of the weekend. If you aren't that happy with your current gig, you should quit your job.

If you do love your job, but still the idea of waking up early and getting all duded up to commute to your place of work has you dragging a bit, here's one tip to make that Monday morning a little easier.

When you're finishing up your work on Friday afternoon, figure out what you want to work on early Monday morning and leave yourself a breadcrumb to it.  In the development world, my favorite mechanism for this is to pick the next story off the board and write a unit test for it.

Write a failing unit test.  Leave it failing locally.  Monday morning, you'll come in and see your little NCrunch indicator telling you that you have a failing test, and you'll know exactly what you need to start with.  Get that test to pass.

This is also pretty good for keeping yourself focused, too.  Instead of diving into email in the morning, start out by getting that story done.  You'll feel great about having something accomplished under your belt, and it sets a great vibe for the week.