Bare Minimum Monday: TikTok's New Quiet Quitting Trend Explained
Finding yourself facing the "Sunday Scaries" is never a pleasant experience. It also has less to do with the second day of the weekend and more to do with what comes next. Yep, we're referring to Monday, which is perhaps the most dreaded day of the week. Surely a partial cause of "resenteeism" in the working world (basically being bitter and potentially affecting coworkers around you), it's not hard to understand why people might not want to greet the start of each work week.
"The most common reason people find Mondays so difficult is that it follows two days of freedom and enjoyment," Sanam Hafeez, a neuropsychologist in New York, told HuffPost. "Even if weekends are still a busy time, there are plenty of moments (e.g. waking up later, going out for lunch) to relax. This massive emotional shift can make Mondays really dreadful and difficult for some."
If this sounds familiar, that's because it's something that plenty of people experience. Becky Stuempfig, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in Encinitas, California, also noted, "When Monday rolls around, many people feel a sense of disappointment and dread about having to return to their responsibilities rather than spending time how they choose to spend it. It may feel like a loss of independence and control because other people are determining how you spend your time." In order to avoid this obviously icky situation, you might want to start indulging in what's now known aptly as Bare Minimum Mondays.
Make your Mondays as easy as possible
Work isn't always easy and there can be a lot of responsibility, pressure, and stress that comes along with certain gigs. Although it's important to know how to manage a reasonable workload, you also must establish a necessary balance. For TikTok user MJ (aka @itsmarisajo), that led to the creation of Bare Minimum Mondays.
Similar to quietly quitting, this trend specifically focuses on Mondays for a very particular reason. MJ explained, "I used to feel so anxious every Sunday and wake up on Monday feeling already overwhelmed because of the long-a** task list that I would make for myself. And then I would inevitably not finish everything on the task list and that would leave me feeling defeated — at the very beginning of my week!"
Instead, MJ decided to take a different approach. Each Sunday night, she figures out what absolutely has to be done the next day. Those are the tasks she then adds to her list and only those tasks. When Monday rolls around, she's able to handle what needs to be done with time left over to do whatever she wants. In her case, she says, "That usually looks something like self-care or doing something that would set me up to have a really good rest of the week." If that works for you, or you need an alternative, then you may just want to keep the vibe going on other days.
This super-chill trend can extend to other weekdays
Although you might be eager to give Bare Minimum Mondays a try, you may want to keep in mind that they're not the only option when it comes to easing back on your responsibilities or fully taking a break when needed. For instance, if there's a holiday Monday, then you can choose to skip work for Take-Off Tuesday, according to Business Insider. Who doesn't love an extended long weekend, after all?
Even if there's not a holiday on the preceding Monday, you can still schedule in a Try-Less Tuesday if you wanted. As the name suggests, you simply get to put in less effort on these particular days. Work-Not Wednesday and Thumb-Your-Nose Thursday both take things a step further by urging you not to get anything done. As for the end of the work week, you can always kick back for Feckless Friday or get a little silly for Fool-Around Friday.
Of course, you might not want to indulge in all five relatively relaxed days in one week if you want to keep your job. However, it may not hurt to choose one or two if it ends up helping you handle your schedule both in the short-term and the long run.