Sunday Says It All: Why Sunday Is the Most Important Day of Your Week
If you work/study fulltime, you probably have at least one day off.
Whereas your workweek (or school) schedule involves many tasks and urgencies, you have at least one day to your own devices — a day without any actual obligations. Most likely, you choose to spend this time relaxing and doing whatever it is that comforts you. And although this might feel relieving at first, it often leads to feelings of emptiness, unfulfillment, and confusion about what to do with your time when there is nothing on your plate.
This is called the Sunday neurosis.
The information below should be credited to Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, a book written by Héctor García and Fransesc Miralles about finding meaning in your life.
The Sunday neurosis ties back to logotherapy, a groundbreaking branch of psychology established by the widely esteemed psychiatrist Viktor Frankl.
According to logotherapy, every individual has a unique purpose in life. Whether that purpose is helping others or exploring the world or having children, it is something that brings meaning to your life in particular. It connects your deepest passion and sources of curiosity — and it provides you with a clear direction in life in terms of how to spend your time most valuably.
If you feel a gap between the things you do with your time (from work to social relationships to hobbies) and this inner source of meaningful living, you might feel anxious or dull about your life — in other words, empty.
For many people, this develops into a kind of existential crisis. Those who spend most of their time on urgencies and personally unimportant matters (often connected to an unfulfilling job or an unhealthy relationship or lazy weekends), abandon what is truly important to them in the long term. Thus, they feel like their life is empty and void of true meaning.
As Héctor García and Fransesc Miralles write in their book Ikigai:
Sunday neurosis […] is what happens when, without the obligations and commitments of the workweek, the individual realizes how empty [they are] inside.
This is a common experience for anyone that either (A) has not discovered their purpose in life or (B) knows what this purpose is but does not actively pursue it with the time that they have on their hands.
Sunday is the greatest test: What will you choose to do with your time?
It is on your days off external obligations that you see what your current priorities truly are — and it is these moments of your life that offer you the opportunity to change those priorities and create a lifestyle that brings you fulfillment and happiness. The things you do on “Sundays” are not defined by your boss or the mission of your workplace. No, it is entirely up to you.
And if you choose not to spend this precious time pursuing your own mission (like starting a business or practicing the piano or learning to become a better friend), you will inevitably feel hollow and maybe even lost in life — not to mention, dissatisfied and unfulfilled.
You have an option, though: to do what is actually important to you, something that revitalizes you and fills your life with meaning simply because of how much it means to you.
As García and Miralles press in their chapter on logotherapy, this is the antidote to the Sunday neurosis. You need to discover something that takes you out of your comfort zone — something that challenges you — and brings you a sense of progress and growth. You need to spend your time doing the things that actually matter — on the things that, over time (and often in the moment), amount to meaningful change.
It is this inner mission and purpose that gives you true direction in life. Not your boss, not your job, and not some other outside person or place. You.
It is the meaningfulness of the things you do with your time that marks the change between a day — or a life — spent in idleness and one spent in merit.
Your Sunday says it all.
