How do you start a week off right? Not with a Monday, that’s for sure. But if you’re going to have a Monday, it might as well be one that comes on the heels of a really good Sunday. That takes some of the sting out. After that, you just have to do what you can to make sure it’s the only Monday you get that week.

The best way to start a Monday, or any day, really, is for the phone not to ring first thing in the morning. On this Monday, a silent phone let me sleep half an hour late. Then I got up and pounded the treadmill for half an hour. That’s one hour of pretty good Monday already, sixty minutes more than I get on some Mondays.

The rest of the day was work, which is what I expected it to be. Some work days are better than others. The best I can ever hope for is for things to go smoothly and not to have any crises interrupt the flow and jangle me out of my rhythm. Any day I don’t have to keep looking over my shoulder has the chance to be a good one. If it’s a Monday, so much the better.

What there is, now that Monday is over, is a neat little pile in my outbox. I’m not saying it’s bigger than the stack in my inbox, which is of course impossible since those items regenerate on their own faster than any human can keep up, but a burgeoning outbox is always a good sign.