Reclaim your weekend from the Sunday blues
If you've ever spent a Sunday afternoon with a knot in your stomach about Monday morning, you're not alone. That creeping dread that starts around Sunday lunch and intensifies as the evening approaches has become so common it even has a name, the Sunday Blues. For some people this can start Saturday, stealing your whole weekend from you.
When you spend your weekends anticipating Monday, you're simply experiencing Monday's stress three times - once in anticipation all weekend, once on Sunday evening in full force, and then again when Monday actually arrives. Meanwhile, your weekend, those precious 48 hours meant for rest, connection, and joy, passes by in a fog of low-level anxiety.
This anticipatory anxiety often feels worse than Monday itself. Your mind conjures up worst-case scenarios that rarely materialise, and you arrive at work on Monday already het-up, anxious or depressed from a weekend spent worrying rather than recharging.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) teaches us that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are interconnected. When it comes to weekend dread, you might be caught in several thinking traps:
Catastrophising: "This week is going to be terrible. I'll never get through everything."
All-or-nothing thinking: "If I'm not productive every minute at work, I'm failing."
Mental filtering: Focusing only on the difficult meetings or challenging projects while filtering out the positive aspects of your work.
Emotional reasoning: "I feel anxious about Monday, so Monday must actually be something to be anxious about."
These thought patterns create a self-fulfilling prophecy. You dread work, so you don't rest properly, which means you arrive at work depleted, reinforcing the belief that work is draining and unpleasant.
CBT techniques to break the cycle
1. Challenge your thoughts
When you notice the Monday dread creeping in, pause and examine what you're actually thinking. Write down the specific thoughts if possible. Then ask yourself:
- What evidence do I have that this thought is true?
- What evidence contradicts this thought?
- What would I tell a friend having this thought?
- What's the worst that could realistically happen? Could I cope with that?
- What's most likely to happen?
For example, if your thought is "I'll never get through my to-do list this week," try challenging it. Have you gotten through every previous week? What systems or support do you have? Can you prioritise the most important tasks?
2. Schedule worry time
This sounds counterintuitive, but it works. Set aside 15 minutes on Sunday evening as your designated "worry time." During the rest of the weekend, when work thoughts intrude, acknowledge them and say, "I'll think about that during my worry time." When worry time arrives, set a timer and allow yourself to think about work concerns—but productively. Write down specific problems and potential solutions. When the timer goes off, you're done.
This technique helps you regain control rather than having anxious thoughts hijack random moments throughout your weekend.
3. Practice behavioral activation
When you don't feel like doing anything on the weekend because of work dread, your instinct might be to withdraw, stay home, avoid plans, or spend hours scrolling on your phone. This amplifies your difficulties as you aren’t doing activities that could improve your mood.
Behavioral activation, a core CBT technique, involves doing necessary, enjoyable or meaningful activities even when you don't feel like it. Make concrete weekend plans: schedule that hike, book tickets to a show, commit to meeting a friend for coffee. These activities can both distract you from rumination and provide positive experiences that counteract your negative predictions about life outside work.
4. Reality test your Mondays
Keep a "Monday log" for four weeks. Each Monday evening, rate your day from 1-10 and note what actually happened. You'll likely find that most Mondays are nowhere near as bad as your weekend anxiety predicted. This concrete evidence helps your brain learn that its threat detection system is overreacting.
Practical coping strategies
Create a Sunday evening ritual
Instead of letting dread build, establish a consistent Sunday routine that signals transition without triggering anxiety. This might include:
- A brief 10-minute work prep (lay out clothes, check calendar) to reduce morning stress
- A relaxing activity you genuinely enjoy—a bath, favorite TV show, or reading
- An earlier bedtime to ensure adequate sleep
- Absolutely no email checking after 6 PM
The key is consistency. Your brain will learn that this ritual marks the end of the weekend, reducing uncertainty and anxiety.
Implement the "Friday brain dump"
Much of weekend dread comes from loose ends and unclear expectations. Before you leave work Friday, spend 15 minutes writing down:
- What you accomplished this week
- Your three priorities for Monday
- Any concerns and potential solutions
This clears your mental workspace for the weekend and gives you a roadmap for Monday, reducing the anxiety blob of "everything that needs to be done."
Practice mindfulness and grounding
When you notice anxiety rising, use the 5-4-3-2-1 technique:
- Acknowledge 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can touch
- 3 things you can hear
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 thing you can taste
This grounds you in the present moment rather than the imagined future. Pair this with slow breathing: inhale for 4 counts, hold for 4, exhale for 6, hold for 4. This activates your parasympathetic nervous system, countering the anxiety response.
Audit your work situation
Sometimes weekend dread is your mind's way of telling you something important. If these strategies help but don't fully resolve the issue, it's worth examining whether your work situation itself needs addressing:
- Are your boundaries being respected?
- Is your workload sustainable?
- Do you have autonomy and control over your work?
- Are you using your strengths?
CBT isn't about tolerating an intolerable situation, it's about responding to situations more effectively. If your work environment is genuinely problematic, the appropriate response might be to advocate for changes or consider alternatives.
Moving forward
Changing these patterns takes time and practice. You won't eliminate Sunday anxiety overnight, but you can significantly reduce it and reclaim your weekends. Start with one or two techniques that resonate with you rather than trying to implement everything at once.
Some Mondays will be challenging, most won't be, either way you need to ask yourself whether you're willing to sacrifice your present moment to worry about a future that rarely unfolds as feared. Your mind might insist that worrying is protective or productive. It's neither. It's just painful.
Start this weekend. Notice when the dread appears, challenge the thought, and gently redirect your attention to what's actually happening right now. That's where your life is, not in Monday's inbox, but in this moment, on this Saturday or Sunday, where you have the chance to rest, to connect, to enjoy, to simply be.
