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Lighter Than You Started is a daily podcast offering gentle reflections on the news, the noise, and the small human moments that shape our days. With wry humour and quiet honesty, it’s not about fixing you, just about ending each day feeling a little lighter than when it began.
Hi I'm Keith and welcome to Lighter Than You Started. It's Friday and today I'd like to talk about Monday which seems slightly unfair. Monday isn't even here to defend itself. But perhaps you've already started thinking about it. Something needs doing next week.
Keith:There's a meeting coming up. A conversation you need to have, a deadline, an appointment, something you know is waiting. And although it's still Friday a little part you has already gone ahead. Right Monday morning I need to then and after that and perhaps I mustn't forget. Before long you've meant to arrive at Tuesday afternoon while Friday's still wondering where you've gone.
Keith:We're very good at living ahead of ourselves and sometimes that's useful. Planning matters. Preparing matters. If you've got something important happening next week thinking about it beforehand may make life considerably easier. I'm not suggesting you close your diary on a Friday afternoon and declare future teeth's problem although future teeth has been left quite a few things over the years and he's really been grateful but there's a difference between preparing for next week and starting to carry next week.
Keith:One is practical the other can become exhausting. Perhaps you've noticed this on Sunday evenings too nothing's actually happened yet but Monday begins to creep into the room. We think about the emails the jobs the people the things waiting and gradually the weekend starts to feel as though it's already over. Friday can work in the opposite direction. We haven't even reached the weekend and we're already allowing next week to take out space.
Keith:It's almost as though Monday's arrived early and put its coat over a chair. Perhaps it can wait outside. There's a question I find useful here. Is there anything I can usefully do about this right now? If the answer is yes do it!
Keith:Write the note, send the email, put the appointment in the calendar, prepare the document, make the list, give the thought somewhere practical to live then perhaps let it stay there. And if the answer is no what exactly are we achieving by continuing to think about it? Sometimes the mind believes that thinking about something repeatedly is a form of preparation. It isn't always. You can think I've got that difficult meeting on Tuesday once.
Keith:Useful. You remember. You can prepare. But thinking about it 17 times between Friday evening and Monday morning doesn't necessarily make you 17 times more prepared. It may simply mean you've attended the meeting 17 times before anyone else has arrived.
Keith:That's an awful lot of unpaid overtime and imaginary meetings have another disadvantage. Nobody else sits to the agenda. We predict what someone might say then what we'll say then what they'll say to that and before long Tuesday's meeting has gone terribly on Saturday morning. Meanwhile actual Tuesday has an expressed opinion. Perhaps this is one of the quieter ways we lose rest.
Keith:We don't necessarily keep working physically. We stop. We close the laptop. Leave the workplace. Change our clothes.
Keith:Make dinner. But some of the working week remains open in our head. A little sign saying back in five minutes and we keep wandering back in. Checking, planning, rehearsing, remembering. Perhaps rest requires more than physically stopping.
Keith:Sometimes it requires allowing your future to remain where it is. There's something interesting about worry. It often presents itself as responsibility. I'm thinking about this because it matters and perhaps it does matter. But caring about something doesn't require thinking about it continuously.
Keith:If you booked a train for Tuesday you don't need to stand on the platform from Friday evening. You can arrive when the train is due. Maybe some problems deserve the same courtesy. We can meet them when they arrive. Of course there's a fear underneath in this.
Keith:What if I stop thinking about it and forget? That's why externalising things can help. Write it down. Set a reminder. Put it in the calendar.
Keith:Make Monday a shortlist. Not a 27 item declaration of war. Just enough so that Monday you know where to begin. Then perhaps Friday you can clock off. I think we sometimes forget that our future selves are allowed to do some of the work.
Keith:We try to solve Monday with Friday's energy. Tuesday with Saturday's attention. Next month's uncertainty with tonight's thinking. But perhaps the version of you who actually reaches Monday will there's something you don't have now. Monday's information.
Keith:Things may change. Someone may cancel the meeting. The problem may resolve itself. New information may arrive. Something you were worried about may become irrelevant or perhaps Monday you'll simply be better placed to deal with Monday because well it's Monday.
Keith:There's a phrase we sometimes use. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. It can sound dismissive but there's quite a lot of wisdom in it. You don't need to cross every bridge you can see in the distance. Some aren't yours.
Keith:Some may disappear before you reach them. Some will have changed by them. And if you try to cross next week's bridge from this side of the weekend you're mostly just walking through imaginary water. Perhaps Friday can include a small handover. Not just from work to weekend but from present you to future you.
Keith:Here's what you need to know. These are the things that matter. I've written them down. The rest is yours. Then trust yourself a little.
Keith:That's an interesting part of this. When we keep thinking about next week perhaps we're sometimes saying I don't trust myself to deal with this later. So we try to deal with it now. But you've dealt with Mondays before. Quite a few of them.
Keith:Some better than others but your survival rate so far is impressive. Perhaps Monday You doesn't need Friday You standing over their shoulder for the entire weekend. They'll manage and if they need help they know where you live. So before today ends perhaps look at anything you're already carrying from next week. Ask can I do anything useful about this now?
Keith:If yes perhaps do the useful bit. Not every possible bit just the useful bit. If no maybe leave it. Not forever until it belongs to the day when you can actually respond. There's a difference between postponing something we genuinely need to deal with and refusing to experience it before it happens.
Keith:The second one isn't procrastination. It may simply be presence. Friday is still here. Perhaps there's dinner tonight. Something you want to watch.
Keith:Someone you want to talk to. A quiet evening. A busy evening. Plans for the weekend or perhaps absolutely no plans at all. Whatever is here deserves a chance to be experienced without Monday constantly knocking on the window.
Keith:And Monday will come. It has an excellent track record. When it does perhaps you'll deal with what belongs there. Until then you don't have to begin it early. Today's thought for you.
Keith:You don't need to start next week yet. Prepare what you can then let the future wait for you. Thank you for sharing this week with me and as always I hope you end today feeling lighter than you started. Go gently and I'll see you tomorrow on the flip side. You can now listen to the Lighter Than You Started podcast on Alexa.
Keith:Simply say, Alexa, play the Lighter Than You Started podcast. Lighter Than You Started is a think of something publishing production.