Welcome to I Hate Monday, the most productive way for small business owners & bloggers to procrastinate until it’s not Monday anymore.
There are four things I hate about Monday:
- Sunday is better.
- Everyone sends invoices on Monday. Why is this a thing? I can only figure it’s some kind of sadistic ritual that humans do to make themselves feel better about the fact that it’s not Sunday anymore.
- Lunch wine says “alcoholic” more than any other day of the week. This isn’t a fact but how can it not be?
- The day itself is about as daunting as a giant pile of dirty laundry, except that giant pile is your to-do list for the week. (And yes, there are period stains. Go ahead. Squirm.)
Anyway, I know everybody on the internet’s been talking for YEARS about this whole, “pick a job you love and you won’t have to work a day in your life” shenanigan, but first of all, that piece of wisdom is about as original as a piece of rotting, dried out, grass-fed beef jerky, and second, those people were lying to make you feel better.
Aren’t you glad you read this blog?
So in an effort to make us all feel a little bit better about this day that nobody likes *coughs in direction of M on the calendar*, I’m creating a fun new series called I Hate Monday, where I’ll be battling the case of the Mondays by sharing some of the things that have been delighting the hell out of me most in business, life and the web.
Why? Because Mondays are annoying enough, and after you get done reviewing all of the invoices, the to-do lists, the deadlines quickly approaching, and the fact that all you want to do is drown yourself in pinot, at the very least there will be this email in your box, longingly whispering things like, “Come here, baby” and “Mama’s got you” and “Don’t kill yourself just yet–at least wait until the holidays are over.”
So on that positive note…
Here are my top I Hate Monday picks to make your life at least .000000045% better this Monday (which is most certainly statistically significant.)
- A really worthwhile read about client psychology, and how they want to feel like you’ve wore yourself out for them….and, based on the same idea, how flight searchers actually want to wait longer for results because they feel like the site is “working harder.” (By the way? I have a follow-up post coming about one technique that I use in my business to help prove my value. Keep an eye peeled this week!)
- Two brilliant lines from this piece on the epidemic of busy: “Right now, I graciously accept my limits.” and “My friend Emily recently talked about saying no to things, but not because she’s busy. She says no in order to prevent herself from becoming busy. ” (Psst…there’s some biggggg wisdom in there.)
- I love putting my name on stuff. Who doesn’t? Ever since the 4th grade when I got my first label maker (why don’t I have one of those anymore?), I learned the joy that is personalization. (I might have even got a sweatshirt embroidered with the name of my first crush. Yup, actually did that.) My new favorite trick? Why not personalize the links that you share around the web? For example, this is a link to one of my favorite drag-n-drop website builder tools: tmf.social/1LRJGXs Notice anything? Yes, that’s right. It’s shortened and branded with TMF.SOCIAL (As opposed to some other generic link shortening extension like ow.ly or bit.ly or buff.ly or something else.) Mostly this just makes me feel fancy, but also helps your brand feel cohesive, put together and, you know, legitimate. 🙂 How did I do it? Go here, register the domain you want (in this case, my domain is tmf.social), and then sign up for an account here, and follow the instructions!
- Serious question: Do you have your Halloween name yet? Speaking of Halloween, over the weekend I tried being all cute and crafty…or something (For everybody who knows me, I am NOT cute nor crafty.) Can we talk about the fact I found what seemed to be the only pumpkin in the entire country of Costa Rica? And then went so far as to gather rainforest branches, spray paint them black, and put them in a vase? I’M HAVING A PINTEREST MOMENT, YOU GUYS.
- This author is a genius. He told the world he was writing his novel real time, for the entire world to watch (as he actually painstakingly edited every line), got a bunch of press, and now? Has this up, instead. Nice strategy.)
- I recently started using CoSchedule to organize my editorial calendar, know when I’m publishing what, and link social media efforts to it all, and you know what? So far, it’s phenomenal!
- I kind of feel like this company is going to change the world. Or at least mine. You submit the brief for what kind of photography you need, and these photographers go out and take the pictures for you, on demand. Same idea with these guys for video.
- This slogan generator is a fun creativity tool! (I had NOTHING to do with the word that’s already selected…ahem.)
- Book agent and I have been having fun brainstorming just the right subtitle for THE BOOK. I cannot stress how much Scrivener has helped keep my rear end organized.
- Seth says that being an interesting person is a choice. (Hint: Being interesting is also necessary if you expect the world to sit up and pay attention to you.)
- If you ever wish things would just happen automatically, now you can make your iPhone your bitch. I like where this is going.
- Is it bad I actually want to write something on my forehead, just to see how people respond?
- And finally, a foul-mouthed weather app. Because who doesn’t need one of these?!
There we go. Politely piss off now, Monday. We’ll see you next week.
Love,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and This Blog