Sunday Scaries: How to Deal with the Fear of Going To Work

How many of you wait for your weekends on weekdays? Do you feel uneasy on Sundays, thinking about going to work the next day?

According to new LinkedIn research, 80% of professionals experience the Sunday Scaries.

Wait! First of all, what are Sunday Scaries?

The “Sunday Scaries” have become a common thing, and many people don’t know what they need to do to avoid this.

Sunday Scaries refers to the feeling of anxiety or stress that someone experiences facing the day before their upcoming workweek.

For instance, if you feel stressed on Sunday evening while thinking about your pending tasks, client meetings, or discussions with your manager for Monday, then you are experiencing Sunday scaries.

Apart from the fear of going to work, some of you might also feel disappointed that you’ve wasted your Sunday.

Let’s find solutions for both of these problems. Read on.

I believe many of you would agree that our Sundays usually pass by faster than the weekdays. We find ourselves waiting for another six days to experience happiness once more.

I had many disappointing and stressful Sundays because I always felt they went by too fast, and I didn’t make the most of them. I worried more about the work I was going to do. To make it worse, I had a one-hour commute.

So, how did I overcome my fears?

1. Identify the Root Cause

Sundays scaries are common among people who work in stressful workplaces, whether it’s due to toxic coworkers or managers, extended working hours, poor appraisals, project deadlines, or the fear of losing their job.

Nobody can provide you with a solution if you don’t know why the fear is caused in the first place. You are the right person to identify the root cause of your Sunday scaries

How can you identify it?

This may sound boring to you, but it worked for me. Take a notebook and list down your thoughts about your work.

Your probable list might be:

1. Extra working hours

2. Disliking my job.

3. Limited Growth.

Now, list down solutions to overcome your problems. This isn’t simple, but I can provide you with some examples:

1. If you love your job but don’t like your company, then the solution is consider switching to another company.

2. If you don’t enjoy your current job, you need to upgrade your skills and explore opportunities in a different field or domain.

But before you wave goodbye to your boss, it’s important to know that being unhappy at work doesn’t always mean you need to find a new job. It could simply be a case of feeling burnt out.

Burn out is slowly becoming a common problem among the modern workforce, if you feel that way, consider taking vacation for a while in order to manage the stress.

Your probable solutions don’t happen overnight; they take a lot of time and commitment. The first step is to determine your path, so start preparing your list now.

2. Sunday Night Routine

People often have different routines during the weekend and weekdays. The biggest concern is that spending too much time on Sunday night can affect your sleeping hours, which will have a negative impact on your Monday.

Sleep is essential for maintaining sound mental health, so you should never compromise it for other activities.

Building a perfect night routine is essential. Consider trying out the following routine:

1. Reading books.

2. Listening to podcasts.

3. Meditation.

4. Journaling.

5. Sitting in Silence for 10 minutes.

6. Walking.

An important point to remember here is that you can choose anything you like or do all of the above activities. The timing is completely up to you; you could even complete them within an hour.

3. Build Additional Income Streams

With the kind of job nature and inflation, depending solely on one job is not a great idea. You should use your time wisely and start building another source of income.

You will find a lot of ideas on the internet, like starting a blog or a YouTube channel, but you don’t always have to follow the majority. Likewise, you can also develop new skills like video editing, providing voice-overs, becoming a social media manager, or learning UI design etc…

Apart from this, try to learn about investing and read more books on finance, as you can’t solely depend on your savings account. You’re earning money with a lot of hard work, and you should know how to make it grow.

Working for an additional stream of income not only boosts your confidence but also eliminates the fear of financial instability.

Remember, you can’t create an additional stream of income overnight, so be practical and work as slow as possible.

4. Plan Fun Activities on Sunday

How often do you plan your Sundays and end up feeling lazy, spending the whole day sleeping on your couch? Most of the time, we feel lazy on Sundays, and our only two activities are eating and sleeping.

This needs to change; you should be able to relax without necessarily spending the entire day lying down.

Give some time for your hobbies or go for volunteer work or visit new places in your town or go for a nature walk.

Physical or creative activity make your Sunday enjoyable, and you’ll get the much-needed satisfaction at the end of the day.

5. Monday Rewards

You’ll always feel better when there’s an anticipation of a future reward. Have you ever wondered why online betting games are addictive? Why do people keep playing even though they continue to lose?

The anticipation of a reward is the reason; people feel satisfied even before knowing the result of the game.

For instance, imagine you’re playing in a casino. You push the button, and the wheels slowly start spinning. And then, suddenly, you win!

But did you realize when you’re actually satisfied in this scenario? If you guessed it’s after winning, then you’re incorrect. The truth is, you experience satisfaction while the wheels are still spinning.

To simplify all this with a simple example, just think about your favorite sweet. Just looking at it can make your mouth water even before you’ve taken a bite.

Anticipating a reward is greater than getting the actual reward.

Now, why am I saying this to you? Just trick your brain to overcome Sunday scaries.

Schedule some time for activities you enjoy after completing work on Monday. For instance, watching your favorite movie or going out for a nice dinner.

These small things actually help you deal with your fears in a better way.

To summarize, you need to put in some effort to overcome inner fears. Simply pushing aside, the fear and hoping for something good to happen in the future won’t assist you in reality.

Happy Sunday!

☕️ If you feel my work is worth an appreciation, you can buy me a coffee!

Thank You!

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