Bare Minimum Mondays: Permission to Slow Down

Part 2 of 3: What a Viral Trend Tells Us About Neurodivergent Burnout

Part 1 of this series covers what neurodivergent burnout is and what causes it. If you haven't read it yet, start there — it sets the foundation for everything in this post.

This part is about a trend that started on TikTok and struck a nerve with millions of people — especially neurodivergent workers. It is called Bare Minimum Mondays. And while it might sound like an excuse to do less, there is something much more meaningful behind it.

What Are Bare Minimum Mondays?

Bare Minimum Mondays — or BMM — is a simple idea: on Mondays, you give yourself permission to do only what is necessary. No pushing to impress anyone. No overloading your schedule. Just the basics, at a pace that does not wreck you for the rest of the week.

The trend was started by Marisa Jo Mayes, a neurodivergent creator and entrepreneur. She shared her experience on TikTok and the response was enormous — according to Built In, her videos reached over 154,000 followers and millions of views. Mayes described in Shortlister how BMM helped her let go of unspoken expectations and invisible rules that were quietly draining her.

Does that idea feel a little radical? That is kind of the point.

Many people spend Sunday evenings dreading the week ahead — that feeling even has a name: the Sunday Scaries. A survey of 2,000 workers in the United States found that 75% of them experience it. BMM is one way to take the edge off that dread before it starts.

Why It Resonates With Neurodivergent People

For neurodivergent people, BMM can feel like someone finally said out loud what they have been struggling to explain for years.

Neurodivergent people often carry a heavier load on any given workday than their colleagues realize. Masking, managing sensory overload, navigating environments that were not built for them — all of that is happening underneath whatever work is on the screen in front of them. By the time Monday morning arrives, the weekend may not have been enough to fully recover from the week before.

Burnout does not usually come from one terrible week. It comes from years of running at a pace that was never designed to last. BMM is a small but meaningful way to interrupt that pattern — and give yourself a fighting chance at the week ahead.

This Is Not About Being Lazy

Let's be clear: Bare Minimum Mondays are not about avoiding work or not caring. They are about pacing. If the word "lazy" has followed you around your whole life, I wrote about exactly why that label is so wrong: Why "They're Smart, Just Lazy" Is So Harmful.

As HR consultant Jessica Milewski noted in Shortlister, as living creatures, people have natural ebbs and flows in their productivity. Starting the week at a gentler pace is not slacking off — it is working with your brain instead of against it. For neurodivergent people, that is not a luxury. It is a form of self-preservation.

What Your Bare Minimum Monday Could Look Like

The point of BMM is not a fixed list of tasks. It is a mindset shift — you decide what your bare minimum is, and you give yourself permission to stop there. Here are some ways to make it work for you.

What This Tells Us About Burnout

The reason BMM struck such a chord is not really about Mondays. It is about the growing recognition that the way most workplaces are structured does not work for a lot of people — and that neurodivergent people have been quietly paying the price for that for a long time.

Not everyone loves the idea. Some employers worry that it sets a bad precedent. But what that concern often misses is that most neurodivergent workers are not looking for an excuse to do less. They are looking for a way to keep going. The alternative to pacing yourself is not five high-performance days — it is burnout, and burnout can take you out for weeks or months at a time.

BMM is one small, personal way to push back. It will not fix everything. But it is a starting point — a way of saying that your energy is worth protecting, and that you get to have a say in how you spend it.

In Part 3, we go further: practical strategies for managing and recovering from neurodivergent burnout for the long term.