How to take Fridays “off” (and still be insanely productive)
If you aren’t able to organize a group hangout on Fridays, take some time to thank and appreciate people in your network. I tend to tweet the most on Fridays (sharing what I’m reading), and I always compliment the writer, which provides an opportunity for us to connect.
3. Use Fridays to plan your upcoming week
Tim Ferriss said it best: “What you do is more important than how you do it, and doing something well does not make it important.”
The reality is that most people inflate their ability to plan well. A lot of us simply aren’t that good at it, but planning ahead is essential to success.
I now dedicate at least one hour to planning every Friday afternoon. First, I go through my planning tool (I’m a huge fan of the Productivity Planner) to assess what I accomplished this week and where I fell short. I then use that as a guide to figure out what goals to set for myself for next week. By the time Monday arrives, I already have a map of what the week will look like, and I can hit the ground running.
There are three main reasons planning on Friday afternoons is so effective:
- If planning is the last thing you do on Friday, it will be fresh in your mind when you start work on Monday, making you ready to hit the ground running.
- The unconscious thought theory asserts that, over the weekend, your brain will continue to work through the problems you mapped out Friday afternoon, even while you are doing other things and not actively thinking about those problems. This means that, come Monday morning, you might find yourself with a few fresh ideas.
- The act of reviewing your past week and then planning your upcoming week provides closure so that you can thoroughly enjoy the weekend. The physical act of closing my planning application is a trigger that says “your week is done, now go enjoy your weekend.”
Take back your Fridays
I now always look forward to Fridays — not just because it means the weekend is finally here — but also because it’s the perfect time to learn new things, build deeper relationships, and prepare for the upcoming week.
Before I developed this system, I dreaded Fridays. It was a stopgap to the weekend, and I rarely got anything meaningful done. Since rethinking how I approach Fridays, I’ve used those few hours dedicated to networking to meet in person with over 200 entrepreneurs.
And because of better planning, the weekdays feel less hectic, which allows me to focus on growing my business. Then, when I get back to work on Monday, I come fresh, inspired, and ready to hit the ground running.
Over to you: How do you spend your Fridays? And what’s one lesson you can take away from this article to make your Fridays more productive?
Sol Orwell is the co-founder of the seven-figure business Examine.com. He has started 6 companies over the past fifteen years, and he currently teaches other entrepreneurs how to do the same at www.sjo.com.