Even though I don’t work a 9 to 5 type of job… I still have to face the Monday chaos each week. Sometimes its better than others. And often, I choose to sleep in LATE on a Monday, so I don’t have to deal with all the emails and calls and panic that ensues in the “real” world. It’s one of the nice perks of working for yourself.

I find that everyone seems to survive whether I am dealing with Monday issues at 9AM or 2PM. I have FINALLY come to embrace this little bit of wisdom. On Monday mornings, everyone seems to want to rush into the work week with both barrels a-blasting! They want to hit the ground running, they are refreshed from the weekend and they want to show the world who’s the boss. They have to-do lists and shooting off an email about an order they think should have arrived, or questioning about some product or a graphic job, it’s a quick job and it gets sent out first thing.

I used to think that it meant that their summons needed my IMMEDIATE attention. So for years, I would spend most of my Mondays in a “reactionary” panic… checking email every ten minutes and panicking over every request, issue and command. It just seemed the thing to do.

But then I began to see that my responses were not returned with fair enthusiasm. In fact, 95% of them were left dangling for hours or even days. That’s when I began to see the true picture. To see that these panic demands were just the result of people “clearing their desks” to begin the week. So I just began to chill out some. Relax on Mondays. Heck, even take most of the day off and have a nice long breakfast, maybe work in the yard for a while. Read. Stop checking my mail. Usually by 2 or 3 in the afternoon, it slows down to a normal flow of life. People are having lunch and got full tummies and would love a nap and start to reach a nice comfortable work pace. They can respond to calls or emails, and they are much more pleasant.

I made a vow about 2 months ago to stop adding to the Monday morning chaos of the world. I decided, no more first thing orders to suppliers. They are up to their armpits with everyone else doing that and my order rarely would get any special treatment. In fact, I began to notice that my Monday morning orders had a higher chance of being wrong, or getting delayed… and I rarely had time to visit with them and shoot the breeze. So now, no Monday supply orders until at LEAST 3 PM.

I stopped emailing others about questions or my own panics… no calls to gig organizers, or questions about wholesale, or anything like that. Not until 3 PM on Monday. What a difference… I actually get quick responses and lengthy, polite ones!

I try to make sure I have new fresh content on my blogs Sunday night. Because I know a LOT of people check the blogs first thing Monday morning and I’d like them to see something fun and new, maybe even inspire them for the day! That’s nice. I know I do it, but then I like to check every morning to my fav bloggers… it’s like my morning newspaper.

Well, I’m challenging all my readers to think about their own Monday morning chaos… and how do you handle it? Can you join me in starting a new little revolution, and try to not add to the karmic chaos that is Monday around the world? What can you do to help with it… to make your Mondays less stressful and filled with skurying busy activities that seldom seem to really be productive… let me know!

I spent today by sleeping in to 11:30… dealing with a little chaos and an errand for a few hours, then around 5 PM I went and laid down to read an hour or so and then had dinner. Now, I’m back at work and will probably work till 11 or midnight and the day will be wonderful content and productive. Already have 3 cards done for the day and have two more that will be done soon… what a wonderful Monday!