Bare Minimum Monday: A Trend To Prevent Burnout

What is Neurodivergent?

Neurodivergent is a non-medical umbrella term that describes people with variations in their mental functions and can include conditions such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and others. Neurodiversity refers to diversity in the human brain and cognition, for instance, in sociability, learning, attention, mood, and other mental functions. Everyone has a unique brain and different skills, abilities, and needs.1

Neurodivergent people often do extra mental lifting to mask or fit in, which can lead to burnout.234 Neurodivergent burnout is a state of complete emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion characterized by chronic exhaustion, reduced tolerance to stimulus, and loss of skills. It can also result in difficulty managing emotions, making a person more prone to outbursts or intense anxiety. It can also result in increased neurodivergent traits such as repetitive behaviors, reduced sensory sensitivities tolerance, difficulty adapting to change, and difficulties with memory and focus.

They are more prone to stress, anxiety, and depression, leading to burnout.They may experience bubbling anger that they don't have the energy to express outwardly or an increased sensory sensitivity. Neurodivergent burnout grows slower and lasts longer than traditional burnout. Most neurodivergent people deal with phases of burnout for the rest of their lives.

Sarah Jackson wrote as-told-to essays based on a conversation with Marisa Jo Mayes5 on ‘Bare Minimum Mondays’ and how to help her do it at work to prioritize herself as an employee to help her reduce stress and burnout.

Who is Marisa Jo Mayes?

Marisa Jo Mayes is a neurodivergent. She is a self-employed Tik Tok creator and startup founder. It has gone viral for doing what she calls ‘Bare Minimum Mondays’ at work. She boasts 154,000 followers on TikTok on that phrase. It has completely changed Marisa Jo Mayes’ life and how she approached her job. It helps her to let herself off the hook for a lot of unspoken expectations and rules that did not really matter was so liberating. You can check her TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsmarisajo.

What is ‘Bare Minimum Mondays’?

‘Bare Minimum Mondays’ is a phrase and trend that encourages workers to do as little work as possible on Monday, even focusing on self-care rituals for the first few hours of the day, in an effort to ease into the workweek and stave off anxious feelings about the week ahead.6 The term was coined by Marisa Jo Mayes, who claims that BMM is the optimum time to do low-key admin and prep jobs, which will smoothly transition you into your workweek.78 The trend aims to combat hustle culture and normalize balance and a slow, steady pace.

How to avoid burnout?

To avoid burnout, it is important to prioritize mental health by practicing self-care habits every day.

It should help you to establish a routine with breaks, and boundaries are also important. Exercise and mindfulness can help manage well-being.9 Support healthy rhythms by prioritizing healthy sleep hygiene routines & practices. Be cautious of depression treatments for undiagnosed neurodivergent individuals.

You may want to try ‘Bare Minimum Mondays.’ You can watch her TikTok videos to help you through it.