Bare Minimum Mondays

Bare minimum Mondays might not work for everyone and every work environment, but we discuss some ways that can make Mondays a little less scary. Best advice I’ve heard all week: “If you come across a bear, never push a slower friend down…even if you feel the friendship has run its course.⁣” We close out the show with more etiquette debates and the fact that Jane hates party games.

How to incorporate some more “bare minimum mondays” into your life

“Bare Minimum Monday” has now become viral online thanks to one startup founder who claimed it has helped her avoid burnout at work.

On Mondays, Marisa Jo Mayes, a self-employed TikTok creator and startup founder, does the absolute bare minimum for work. On these days, she doesn’t take meetings and takes it slow for the first two hours; doing some reading, journaling, and chores. It’s two hours of no technology and simply doing whatever she needs to do “to feel good starting my day.”

While many of the activities that define Mayes’ Mondays are not possible for those of us who don’t work for ourselves or don’t work remotely, it begs the question: what about the ethos of a bare minimum Monday could you adopt into your life so that the Sunday Scaries are so bad?

If you’re not following National Park Service on Twitter, you should change that

Move over Dear Abby. The National Park Service twitter is reigning supreme as the best place to get advice these days. 

Advice like: 

To avoid crowds, visit areas that are less crowded.

— National Park Service (@NatlParkService) February 23, 2023

Or like this: 

If you come across a bear, never push a slower friend down…even if you feel the friendship has run its course.⁣⁣

— National Park Service (@NatlParkService) February 28, 2023

It might be obvious, but it’s invaluable.

What’s the grace period for lateness?

We return to a periodic discussion over the different Dos and Dont dictated by New York Magazine from February.  Today we discussed: 

• Whether or not you need your order ready by the time you get to the counter. 
• How to attend a dinner party if you have allergies or other dietary restrictions 
• Whether or not you can browbeat people into playing charades 
• And how late is “too” late when meeting someone one on one

Reminder: There are 29 Days Until Wisconsin’s Spring Election

• See what’s on your ballot here. 
• You can register to vote online until March 15th, at your minicap clerk’s office until March 31st and in person on April 4th at your polling place. Register or check your registration here.  
• Deadline to request an absentee ballot is March 30th – request yours here.