Sunday Scaries - do you suffer?

The Sunday-WHAT? Whether you’ve heard of the latest colloquialism taking LinkedIn and other social network platforms by storm or not, I’m sure we’ve all experienced the feelings that equate to the Sunday Scaries/ Sunday Blues at one stage or another. In short, they’re the anxious emotions we often feel as a week's beginning approaches.

You're still enjoying your down-time on a Sunday afternoon as the evening begins to close in and it suddenly dawns on you that Monday is just a few hours away – the number of unanswered emails, unfinished To-Do list tasks or meetings with topics to ‘take offline’ are looming on top of the new jobs and actions required from the new week ahead?!

• Trends show that since the Covid-19 pandemic, the lines separating personal and professional lives have become hazier, which has made the issue worse.
• Research commissioned by PHID, found that overall, 67% of Britons frequently experience anxiety on a Sunday.
• The worst affected were young adults with 74% of those aged 18-24 experienced ‘heightened anticipatory anxiety’.
• Interviews with those who claimed to ‘love their jobs’ also experienced the blues, confirming that the Sunday Scaries were not exclusive to those unhappy at work.

The University of Exeter are devising a toolkit to be issued later this year which will help employers ‘Banish the Sunday Night Blues’.

Channel 4 also conducted research that found more than two thirds of Britons suffered from feelings of anxiety and sleeplessness on a Sunday night. A survey of 650 respondents showed that people experience energy dips on Sunday evenings and increase to their energy levels on Monday mornings, which researchers believe triggers the Sunday Scaries.

How to prevent the Sunday Scaries?

Upon reading the findings of research conducted by the University of Exeter, Channel 4 and other leading professionals, the following can help ease the anxiety experienced for the week ahead.

• Managers should check-in with their teams on Fridays to talk through any challenges, outstanding ‘To Do’ tasks and to discuss how they can help support for the following week.
• Derive a To Do list on Friday for the following week. Brain-dump on a Sunday evening any tasks or outstanding ad hoc/life admin that is aiding your brain-fog.
• Plan positive interactions for Mondays to you something to look forward to.
• Ban emails on the weekend – schedule sends for typical working hours should you find yourself logging on across Saturday or Sunday.
• Avoid self-imposed pressure to perform.
• Managers to set examples to their teams with clear non-work boundaries.

Although a bout of the Sunday Scaries is unpleasant, they aren't always a problem you need to solve or a warning that you should change your life drastically. Plenty of individuals deal with them - it's not just you.?

Sources:

LinkedIn

Sunday Night Blues caused by weekend emails and blurred boundaries, study reveals - News (exeter.ac.uk)

Study reveals that Sunday night blues caused by weekend emails and blurred boundaries: Pressparty

Banishing the Sunday night blues · Business School (exeter.ac.uk)