10 Minutes on Friday That Will Make Your Monday 10 Times Easier

Improve each week before it even begins

Photo: Poh Kim Yeoh/EyeEm/Getty Images

For most of us, Monday mornings look like this: You grab your coffee, go to your computer, look at your calendar and your inbox and ask yourself, “Okay, what should I do?” You think through the upcoming week. You get a sense of timing and what’s on your plate.

Monday morning might seem like a great time to plan. It is, after all, the start of the week. Many teams even have a recurring meeting on Monday morning to hash out the week’s workflow.

However, devoting Monday morning to planning exacts a huge opportunity cost that can be avoided by choosing a different time. Move your planning to Friday: Simply spend some time each Friday listing out the most important priorities for the week ahead (those will now get done first thing on Monday morning), and emailing any requests for meetings that need to happen throughout the week. Here’s why:

You probably already dislike Mondays

We know Mondays have a bad reputation; in any given poll, they are at least roughly tied for least favorite day of the week. They tend not to be the most productive day of the week either. One Accountemps survey found that 39% of HR managers said their employees were most productive on Tuesdays. Only 24% said Mondays.

I suspect this is because people figure out what they’re doing on Monday, and it’s not until Tuesdays that they are on a roll. This weekly rhythm suggests a problem. Let’s say Friday is usually a wash; few people describe it as their most productive (or even slightly productive) day. If Monday isn’t maximized, that leaves you with only three days a week to work.

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You’re probably already not maximizing your Friday

Be honest — are you getting that much deep work done on Fridays? If not, you might as well use that time for other tasks, like planning the week ahead. As an added…