For years, as Sunday afternoon came around, I’d start to feel restless, anxious, and guilty. Restless because I felt like I needed to fit one more thing into my weekend instead of relaxing in front of the TV. Anxious because thoughts of work started to fill my mind, with all the deadlines I knew about and the possibility of new ones I’d find in my email inbox on Monday morning. Guilty that I hadn’t done enough during the weekend. I hadn’t spent enough time with friends, hadn’t exercised at all, hadn’t cleaned the bathroom or done some other chore I’d put off to the weekend, thinking I’d have so much time for all the things I didn’t have the energy for during the workweek.
I’m not one to say we need to be productive all the time. It’s perfectly fine to spend a weekend binge-watching a new show. But I’d guess that’s not usually your plan, even if that’s what you end up doing. And while a full two days of entertainment and relaxation can be just what you need for one weekend, personally I don’t think it’s good for me to do that every weekend. And that difference between what we planned to do and what we end up doing is a part of what makes us feel so bad that the weekend is nearly over.
Being productive wasn’t a cure for my Sunday scaries, though. Still I felt like time was running out around 3pm on a Sunday.
I tried doing more during the week, too—more dinners with friends, chores during lunch breaks on remote days. I thought by doing this, my weekend wouldn’t be so burdened as my time to get chores done, socialize, and relax. But still I had the Sunday scaries.
What are the Sunday Scaries?
The Cleveland Clinic defines the Sunday scaries as “a form of anticipatory anxiety.” Most people work from Monday through Friday, but this could happen to you on a different day if your schedule differs. It’s a sense of growing dread on Sundays about returning to the workplace. Jobs are pretty stressful! If jobs were all fun and games, we wouldn’t get paid, would we? The thought of all those emails, meetings, tasks, and deadlines that start to creep in on Sunday… That’s the Sunday scaries.
How Did I Cure the Sunday Scaries?
I started volunteering on late Sunday afternoons. It’s a shift of two hours at a local animal shelter. A few weeks after I started, I began to notice that I didn’t feel that familiar anxiety on Sundays anymore. Around 3pm, instead of thinking about how the weekend was almost over, I was thinking about getting ready for my shift. I didn’t feel like time was running out because there was still a whole activity on my schedule!
During my two hours at the shelter, I’m completely focused on the animals, not on my own worries. Work feels far away. And after my shift is done, I still have time to watch an episode or movie before the weekend is really over.
What Else Could You Do?
I was lucky to find a relatively easy, close-to-home volunteering opportunity, but that’s not the only way to counter the Sunday scares. As fulfilling as volunteering is, the key part that cured my Sunday scaries was having a recurring activity on Sunday afternoons.
Having something to do on late Sunday afternoons took my mind off the coming workweek and made my weekend feel longer. I also think it helps to get out of the house. At home, I’m thinking about chores I didn’t do over the weekend and how I should already start preparing for the workweek—packing lunch, choosing my outfit, etc. If you have access to your work emails, it’s tempting to check to see what’s coming up—don’t do it! So if you’re going to stay at home, invite someone over so you can’t get pulled into thoughts about what you should do or should’ve done.
Possible Activities
There are plenty of things you could schedule for your Sunday afternoons—things like:
- Going for a walk or hike with a similarly-afflicted friend
- Going to a movie at the local cinema
- Taking a weekly in-person class (such as fitness, language, art, etc.)
- Going on a solo coffee date (grab a book, journal, or newspaper, and find your third space)
- Playing tourist for a couple of hours in your own area (many museums are closed on Sundays, but you can check out a new landmark or state park or just any place you’ve never visited before)
- Hosting a board game hour at your house
- Visiting an elderly neighbor or relative
- Volunteering with a local organization
- Starting a Meetup group with weekly activities on late Sunday afternoons (either pick an activity you really enjoy like running or knitting or a book club, or change it up every week)
My volunteering shift is great because it’s every week. I recommend a habitual activity. Otherwise it’s too easy to stay home and feel those anxieties encroaching.
And of course this is my personal experience! Other recommendations I’ve seen mentioned are meditation; exercise; self-care or some other kind of treat; planning a fun thing for Mondays; or spending some time on Sunday planning the next week’s schedule, tasks, or meal plan—to make you feel more in control of the coming week. I’ve tried them all and they didn’t work for me, but they may work for you.
