Miscellaneous Monday - You're newest Monday Morning routine?

[Fun Man Andy]

Mondays... right? ??

When it comes to the plight that is Monday mornings, many of you might know this particular feeling:

Waking up on a Monday following a weekend that is equal parts exceptionally productive & successful (mine was DIY work in the house) AND woefully unsuccessful (over ate so much & sat terribly causing so much back pain) just leaves one completely lost.

I have so much to do and no clear vision on how to do it and just felt... LOST!

Forget resolutions... work on HABITS! ?❗️

It's end of January and now hopefully all the silly talk of "new year, new me" is finally over (sorry, I'm not a fan of resolutions, hehehe) and I realised that day in day out, the best thing to do is focus on habits!

I looked down at my desk and realised that a big part of my feelings this morning was down to a ridiculously messy desk. The busyness of last week combined with the DIY (I had to saw where I work... #DustAnyone!? Little Britain, classic!) meant it looked worse for wear....

So, before breakfast and a well needed coffee, I got cracking. I sorted out everything, only leaving on my desk the items I truly needed for today, grabbed my trusty Pledge and got wiping!! And OMG... it's now 5hr later and I feel fantastic! The week has well and truly started and I feel suddenly a lot less lost. Oh.. and my desk smells #Amazaballs!

This will be my new Monday Morning Routine from now on: Pledging the desk!

Your Routines ? ❓

What are some Monday Morning Routines that you maintain to make sure you have the best start to the work week?

[Jimmy Seddon]

Thank you for starting this back up again @Fun Man Andy!

First of all I follow the Atlassian Cloud Documentation blog posts: https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/blog

This means that every Monday morning I get to see what Atlassian has changed in Jira and Confluence so that I'm prepared for what my users may be asking about or what I can tell them is now available (nothing makes you feel like a hero than being able to tell people they can do more with the tools they enjoy).

That is really the only "Monday" specific task.  The rest of it is everything else I do to prepare for the start of the day period.

• As soon as I get up a do a quick scroll through email to make sure nothing is on fire
• I walk the dogs (yes even on the cold days) which gives me the silence to organize in my head what I want to accomplish that day.
• I make sure my wife doesn't need any help with the kids, then I diver into work (since I'm still working from home).

Have a great Monday Everyone!

[Josh Costella]

I like it @Jimmy Seddon

I do similar in terms of checking what new features were released. I'll never get tired of loving that aspect of being in Cloud. 

The dog walk sounds like a good idea as well. Might need to try that.

[Fabian Lim]

Thanks for sharing. My new clients are on cloud so the blog is very helpful. 

[Andy Gladstone]

@Fun Man Andy this is an Amazballs+ post!

My Monday habit is creating the scorecards for the previous week’s OKR’s and KPI’s. I carve out a solid hour to go through the data, measure SLA’s and analyze any anomalies before publishing our internal Executive scorecard each week. And where is this golden treasure stored - you guessed it - Confluence! A template we created internally based on the precepts of EOS helps us keep our fingers on the pulse of the business. 

After my alphabet soup of OKR, SLA, EOS and KPI I settle down for a week ahead meeting. This is basically a review of everything I have scheduled on my calendar, and I go through a keep or kill exercise. If I decide to keep the meeting, this sets me up to ensure I am prepared. If I decide to kill the meeting - well that’s reclaimed time that I can use to focus on the things that have to get done even though they are not on any calendar. 

[Fun Man Andy]

Wow guys... this is SO cool. I am so impressed with your fabulously positive approaches to Mondays.

Am now super inspired to actually up my game when it comes to the Monday Morning Routines! This is AMZABALLZ...!!!

It's like we've found the two GOATS of MMA MMRs.... is this a Celebrity Deathmatch!???

[Monique vdB]

Love this question! I make my to-do list for every day the night before; the most crucial thing to know is WHEN IS MY FIRST MEETING. If it is early, my morning will be a little crazy because I am trying to get my child out the door to school up until approximately 30 seconds before the meeting starts.

Fortunately, I try to keep Monday mornings free so I can do my favorite Monday-morning task to set myself up for success: organizing my Trello board for the week ahead! I choose an affirmation for the week and start Trelloing. Here's what that looked like this week:

[Fun Man Andy]

That is awesome  @Monique vdB ! 🤩💫🎖

Being West Coast your mornings must be manic anyway, what with East Coast all like "hello... are you online yet!?" 😉

That is a Best in Class use of Trello and I blooming admire it!! 💙🧐

[Andy Gladstone]

@Fun Man Andy East Coast isn't always so glamorous. I used to have a 2AM weekly team call with my teams in Santa Barbara (11PM), New York (2AM), Amsterdam (8AM) and Singapore (2PM)!

[Fun Man Andy]

Wow.... that is seriously un-glamorous....! That is a pure RockNRoller lifestyle 😱

The only people that have ever been successful in getting me to stay up so late for a meeting are ACE Columbus...! (cause they promised 45min of me hearing my own voice)

[Pramodh M]

Hi @Fun Man Andy 

I usually start my week with fresh fruits breakfast and exercise to get prepared for a week full of calls!!

I will have my To-Do prepared on the Trello board for weeks' tasks!!

[Fun Man Andy]

Wow @Pramodh M - that sounds heavenly! Good for you 💪 🤩 🍑 🏆

And props on the Trello... everyone needs that in their life!

[Vero Rivas]

Hi @Fun Man Andy 

  Well, on Monday I get up, do meditation and then while I get dressed, I prepare breakfast, I listen to motivating music to start my day and week with energy

  I believe that attitude is 50% of everything, it is important to face the week with optimism, attitude and good energy

Cheers

[Fun Man Andy]

Well done @Vero Rivas ! And a great reminder that we all need to make time for meditation. I just don't do enough of it.

What type of music do you listen to in the mornings...? Mine's normally Lofi Hip Hop... nice melodies, heavy base but not distracting.

Sounds like your attitude is spot on!

[Brant Schroeder]

I get up, get my kids up, make breakfast and take the dog out.  I then drink 16 to 32 Oz of water and get to work.  Pretty unclimatic but seems to work well for everyone.

[Fun Man Andy]

Being a cool dude, looking after the family and taking care of oneself is pretty climatic in my book @Brant Schroeder ! 🎖🤩

[Vishwas]

Mondays this year are quite good. As I am not currently working, there isn't a Monday misery kind of feeling to go to work.. xD,. So I get up at usual time and go for a walk, come back and get ready. Have breakfast and then check on Atlassian community for previous weeks replies, then answer few questions. 

Finally I do plan out for a week on what to learn to enhance my skills !!

[Fun Man Andy]

Ah yes... the "Monday misery kind of feeling to go to work"... I know it well... the one that starts normally with me around Sunday 14:00 😒

This sounds like a most productive use of your time @Vishwas 

What have you decided to learn for this/next week!? Any fun Atlassian Uni items??

[Vishwas]

@Fun Man Andy  I have planned to learn Opsgenie 

[Jack Brickey]

Actually my Mondays are not all that unique. I start with coffee and check in on some Community posts while consuming the local news. The one exception is that I:

• reflect on the previous week, what went well what did not
• update my status report
• plan out the current week's goals

have a bit of breakfast and away we go...

[Fun Man Andy]

Classic Jack... what a legend! This is exactly how I imagined your Mondays would go. 😎❤️‍🔥

I love that image... so full of life and a great way to view a Monday morning!! #NEW

[Josh Costella]

• I read the weekly Atlassian Cloud changes email and post. 
• I try to block out my entire day to get as much focused work done as possible. I feel like it's a great way to start the week.

[Fun Man Andy]

That is brilliant @Josh Costella - do you allow any meetings on a Monday or is it purely blocked out for work only...!? And if yes, does it work... asking for friend 😉

[Josh Costella]

So, I have a team policy of no same day meetings unless a true emergency or from basically someone with initials in their title. That means I or my team shouldn't have meetings pop up on Monday. Same day meetings are a context switching productivity killer. It's fair to assume and expect that everyone already has things they are working on and trying to complete on a given day. Advanced notice is respecting someone's time.

After that, it's just a matter of only checking slack and email once or twice that day. Put my headphones on and work as much as possible. 

[Marjorie]

Actually getting out of bed on time after a weekend.

Reading my Atlassian digest email.