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A new self-care trend is trending on TikTok: Bare Minimum Monday. Influencers want to draw attention to the fact that we often put too much pressure on ourselves at the beginning of the week.
Why do Mondays stress so many of us out?
You know the drill: it’s Sunday night, and you’re worrying about the week ahead. What do I want to accomplish? What needs to get done? And how can I get the most out of my week? For many people, the new week also means a new start, and they are inspired by this. We are only too happy to take on far too much. True to the motto “What you can do today, don’t put off until tomorrow,” we write long lists of things we want to do.
On hardly any day are the to-do lists as long as on Monday. And that can be quite motivating—at least until Monday actually arrives, and we are overwhelmed by all the to-dos on our calendar. Waking up at five o’clock to do yoga before running to the office and completing all the tasks for the entire week is a pipe dream for many of us, which in reality becomes an absolute nightmare at the latest when the alarm clock rings for the first time.
Instead of euphoria and motivation, there are quite a few unfinished tasks at the end of the working day and a lot of frustration at the beginning of the week.
Bare Minimum Monday as a solution?
But this frustration should now end, at least if one may believe TikTok because she seems to have found the solution starting a week ago. And the solution is called Bare Minimum Monday. As the name suggests, the idea is that you should consciously take it easier at the beginning of the week than on all the other days. The trend was brought to life by Marisa Jo, who shows in her videos that she consciously only does the bare minimum on Monday when it comes to work. In her videos, she explains that she used to worry about the coming week as early as Sunday. Because when it came to work, she had endless lists of things she wanted to get done. Lists that already caused her stress and anxiety over the weekend. Then, at the end of each Monday, she felt guilty for not completing all those tasks.
Until she started Bare Minimum Monday about a year ago, every Sunday since then, Marisa consciously considered what the least I needed to do for work. And those are the things she gets done. No more and no less! Once she has completed these urgently needed tasks, she designs her Monday individually, as she pleases. Sometimes, that means self-care; sometimes, she does things she knows will make her feel extra good.
This is how Bare Minimum Monday works in the 9-5 job, too.
It’s a principle that’s finding a lot of favor online. Many users stress how much they know the feeling of “I don’t do enough” and how much the idea of a Bare Minimum Monday appeals to them. “I need to incorporate this into my life,” comments one user. “My depression has been so bad lately. Today, I tried the concept for the first time, and it had such a huge impact on me,” writes another user, emphasizing, “I’m going to do this every week now!” Others share that they, too, have tested the concept and noticed how little pressure it makes them feel on Monday, but they still get plenty done.
So is Bare Minimum Monday the solution to all stress? Well, not quite. After all, Marisa is in a pretty special position: she’s self-employed, works from home, and can manage her own time. A privilege that many of us probably don’t have. For most of us, reality consists of fixed schedules and things that must be done, as well as tasks assigned rather than given to us.
But Marisa contends that a Bare Minimum Monday is possible even in a traditional 9-to-5 job. You should cross those to-dos off your list that Marisa calls “wishful thinking.”. Those are things that are unrealistic to achieve anyway. “The rest of Bare Minimum Monday happens in your brain,” she points out. She used to have a 9-5 job and now knows that things always stress you out unnecessarily. Those things and tasks should be consciously avoided by dragging them onto Monday and realizing that it doesn’t make a difference if you finish everything on Monday. It’s not just about the schedule on Monday but about how to be nicer to yourself.
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