I’m sitting at my desk (at home) on a Monday to type these words: I have reclaimed my Mondays! Let me explain.

I began taking Mondays off years ago and last year (2022) when I started a business program that required four weekly calls plus homework, I started working again on Mondays because I needed the extra time. The weekly calls ended in December (and will end altogether in May when I graduate). So about four weeks ago, on a Sunday evening as I was previewing my week I could feel my body telling me, “sis, uh… we are ready to go back to Mondays off. You need it, we need it.”

The benefit of listening to my body and mind and giving it space to communicate what is needed is that I am typically very attuned to what I need. I realized that I was still working on Mondays even though the demands from the Goldman Sachs program had changed significantly. I immediately logged into Slack and told my team that I would be out of the offie on Monday and in our team meeting informed them that I will be out of office and unreachable all Mondays going forward.

On that Monday I dropped my children off to school, came home, went for an outdoor run for the first time all year, read a book, had a delicious lunch, and did so many other things that fueled me. I had forgotten how much I LOVE running outside, it truly was an amazing six hours to myself and SO SO SO needed. And the weather for the run was SUPERB—not too hot, not too cold. Goldilocks!

The following Mondays were spring break and a family trip to celebrate my mom’s birthday (more on that to come in my March recap) and now I am back in my seat, reclaiming my Mondays and excited to spend time reading, writing, running, and whatever else it is that I need.

I have an episode of the Best Today® podcast going into more detail about reclaiming my Mondays and the lessons learned (I’ll link it here once it airs) but for starters I had to share and proclaim, that Mondays once again belong to me.

There was a time in my life where Mondays were my least favorite day of the week. Sunday evening I would feel a sense of dread and frustration about going into work. I reclaimed my Mondays when I began to work for myself and while I was happy to take a reprieve for the amazing opportunity to be a part of the Goldman Sachs Small Business program, I am overjoyed to get back to “me Mondays.”

Next up will be a much needed February and March recap. March was FULL in the best way. More on that coming soon!