lifehacker.com: You probably know the feeling: The night before you have to go back to work or school after being off for a couple of days (or longer), you start to feel anxious. You can’t focus, can’t sleep, and find yourself imagining all the stressful or annoying things that await you at work in the coming week. Welcome to the “Sunday Scaries.”
9 comments:
Firstly, I love the cat. It looks so grumpy. I like the intentionality behind this article but at the end of the day it's not really feasible. I think although I wish I could have Sunday as a day to relax I have to do work that day and there is no way around it. I try to save work I enjoy for Sunday but again, that’s not always feasible. I think, at least for myself, I am always aware of why I have the “Sunday Scaries.” I know I have a lot to do next week, but no matter how much I plan that stress will not change. I think the most useful part was living clean. I find that it's always easier to get work done when my room is clean and everything is organized, but that's not how everyone is. I know many people who find they are more creative when things are more messy.
I used to feel this towards the beginning of a summer camp job I worked with middle schoolers, and now I understand why. Rather than a Sunday dread, it was a nightly dread about work the next morning (wondering if it'd be worse than the day I'd had, etc.) Changing age groups at camp completely removed my dread, so this article is correct in that switching up your courses or your profession could help a lot with this feeling.
I'm glad there are resources like this out there to help curb the "sunday scaries." I'd never thought about just how many chores and weekly-to-do's I leave until Sunday. However, I think the article's advice definitely has its limitations. While it's easy to do laundry on Saturday or prep early for a Monday meeting, it's much harder to follow the advice to drop a course entirely (especially if it's required for your program). What I think they're missing is that you could talk to a professor or academic advisor about the course, seek tutoring, or otherwise reach out to get help that should mitigate some of that stress via weekly prep/outside work.
I would like to point out that the article did a great job of pulling the reader in by using a playful name for a commonly felt emotion, then going into depth and highlighting the fact that these are common feelings and they have been studied before. It’s helpful that the article allows the “Sunday scaries” to be applicable to different facets of life and acknowledges the deeper rooted anxiety of the unknown. Throughout the article it provides some good tips for dealing with anticipation anxiety, but one that stuck out to me amongst the others was “Living Clean”. I think its important to recognize the idea that we are living for a time where we don’t have any responsibility, but that it is often short lived. I would have liked to see this article acknowledge that these strategies are not full-proof and that there may be deeper-rooted issues that need to be addressed, but nonetheless it still provides some solid strategies for coping.
I had always heard of the term "Sunday Scaries", but I never knew that it was in reference to an actual condition of anticipatory anxiety. It was really comforting to read an article that acknowledged this feeling and made me feel not as alone in this. Especially in the School of Drama at CMU, our schedules are crazy. Even the computer science kids are scared when we show them our class schedules. I appreciated that this article discussed reasonable and helpful solutions to help decrease the chances of having the sunday scaries rather than going on and on about what it is, because we all know how it feels. In order to succeed and stay on top of classes here, I quickly learned that you have to stay on top of things day by day, every free hour, to prevent yourself from having to pull all nighters and having this feeling of impending doom, as they say in the article. Lately I've been always feeling the sunday scaries, but to an extent I don't think it is the worst thing. This sort of stress pushes me to stay on top of everything because if I leave everything to Sunday, it wouldn't be the sunday scaries it would be the sunday of death.
I have actually never heard the phrase “Sunday scaries”, but it totally makes sense after reading this article. I personally can say that Sunday has often been a source of dread. The very logical breakdown of the details and how to avoid this anticipatory anxiety seemed very well researched and organized; the small quips of humor such as the example given in the middle of how “Sunday scaries” is the exact opposite of “thank god it’s Friday” was also very clever. I feel like there are some certain aspects of life that may vary by person and may not be applicable to some of the strategies and suggestions that the article recommended, but most of them definitely seem like they can help to some degree. The part that suggested the stoppage of furthering one’s anxiety by meaningless stress actions by creating a more balanced schedule of work and play seemed to be the most useful to me.
I’m sure there’s a fine balance between too much vs too little anxiety but if there’s a person out there who’s got it figured out they’re probably lying. I don’t think I’ve met a single person who knows how to plan their life accordingly to their needs and I think these articles are always satisfying to read, not to get any actual advice out of, but to imagine myself actually having any kind of control against anticipatory anxiety. People can talk all day about finding routines and making good habits so we know what to expect out of our day. But so many things happen last minute or people make decisions and don’t include you so you don’t know what to expect and I don’t feel like that’s unfair or something to look down upon. Help people get over “Sunday Scaries” by giving them all of the information they need to act accordingly. Not just lists of things to make them wish they could.
Ah, the dreaded Sunday Scaries. Or anticipatory anxiety, if you want to be more technical with the name. I, myself, am very familiar with this. Both on Saturday night/Sunday morning and Sunday night. Just last night I found myself tossing and turning, worried about the amount of work I needed to get done today & everything I have due this week. I think this article offers a good, basic jumping off point for people who are dealing with this every weekend. Not all of their advice is applicable to everyone, but I think it can at least get people thinking about things they can do to help themselves have a better Sunday/weekend/break from school & work. For example, dropping a class might only be an option for a handful of students depending on what program they are in. Sometimes your schedule means that Sunday has to be your productive day of the weekend. Either way, I think it’s up to each person to decide what works best for them.
Dealing with the Sunday Scaries is something I’ve been trying to work on this year without ever putting a name to it. Considering the amount of classes, homework, and rehearsal we all have during the school year, it’s easy to feel that anxiety and sense of doom entering back into the work. It’s also difficult feeling like you didn’t really have the chance to fully take a break and rest because time is spent catching up on household tasks and homework. It’s not always possible to just change your schedule on Mondays because of required courses and what not but what has helped me is scheduling something exciting and for me on Mondays to give me something concrete to look forward to. It has also been helpful to shift my mindset and try to be more optimistic about what is ahead. Easier said than done, but looking for the good even if it’s the little things helps.
I never knew there’s a term for this kind of feeling. I think anticipatory anxiety is definitely something that the majority of the people have experience with. Personally, I think my ‘Sunday scaries’ are not that bad most of the time but it is ‘stronger’ on days when I have a lot due the following day. I agree with the article that making plans could definitely help, and you are less likely to wait to do something until the last minute. In addition to what Hikari said, I also think that it’s not always a bad thing. For me, I’ve learned from the previous semester that if I wait to do everything on my Sunday then my weekend is no longer enjoyable. Now I try to be on top of things so that on my weekend I can spare time for myself.
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