When I started writing this story, it was 4 p.m. on a balmy Friday. Why wasn’t I more productive already so I could enjoy what was outside my window?
Instead, I was stuck inside, staring at a blank screen.
Why don’t we all get more done on Fridays (or whatever your last day of the workweek is)?
Because we’re distracted and error-prone, according to a study from Texas A&M.
“Employees were less active in the afternoons and made more typos in the afternoons — especially on Fridays,” said one of the researchers, Dr. Taehyun Roh. “This aligns with similar findings that the number of tasks workers complete increases steadily from Monday through Wednesday, then decreases on Thursday and Friday.”
Why Can’t We Be More Productive?
It’s relatively obvious why we’re distracted: Most of us think about the weekend — whether we’re excited about a concert or dreading the yard work. And we’re usually a bit burned out from the previous four full days of work.
“We found that computer use increased during the week, then dropped significantly on Fridays,” says Roh.
While the drop in productivity could be bad for business, the rise in errors is a bigger deal.
Case in point: By late Friday afternoon, when I wrote this story, Grammarly called me out on typos and misspellings more than I had seen all week. So fixing those cost me more time. Had I not fixed them, you’d read a poorly written, error-riddled story. And that could cost ResourcefulManager credibility and subscribers — lost time and money due to a Friday afternoon.
So, how can we get more done on Fridays — and get it done well?
Our friends at Korn Ferry’s consulting group have proven ways to be more productive on Friday — perhaps turning it into the most productive day of the week.
1. Plan It
Fridays typically have the fewest appointments. We avoid bad meetings, presentations, training events or even social events. And when you don’t have to interact as much, you have time to focus on your highest priorities.
But you can’t just hope to do that. It’ll happen if you plan on the first day of the week what you’ll accomplish on the last day.
Write down what you need to accomplish by the end of the week. Be specific. Even better, share the list with a colleague who can tell you if it’s too ambitious or not ambitious enough.
2. Choose Low-Stress Work
If possible, use Friday to catch up on or get ahead of the unglamorous work that doesn’t require a lot of deep or creative thinking (but feels like a huge relief when it’s done).
From filing expense reports to reviewing or updating weekly reports, take care of the housekeeping tasks. You can knock out essential tasks so they don’t hang over your head, causing stress. And knowing whatever housekeeping tasks pile up in the next week will get done the following Friday can make the weekend more enjoyable.
3. Make It a Training Day
Similar to choosing low-stress tasks, you might use Fridays to catch up on self-guided training — such as recorded webinars, online tutorials or professional books.
Get into a cadence of Career Growth Fridays and you might be looking at a promotion next season!
4. Batch the Day
Fridays often leave room for daydreaming and distractions because they aren’t as structured as other days. But if you do create some structure, you can accomplish more.
One Korn Ferry coach suggests you use Fridays to “batch” work, using simple calendar tools to manage time with specific chunks devoted to:
- complete tasks
- create buffers for tasks that ran longer than expected
- plan for the next week, and
- follow up with colleagues, employees or clients.
5. Get Together
Building on that last bullet, you might want to try Connection Fridays. More and more organizations are adopting no-meeting Fridays because people don’t want to — and seldom need to — sit in big organizational meetings when they (supposedly) won’t work the next two days to act on what’s covered.
So you might use that time for informal one-on-ones with colleagues whom you don’t interact with frequently or employees who need a little extra attention. Use the time to share ideas, struggles and solutions that can make everyone’s work life easier.
6. Start Earlier
Finally, one of the Korn Ferry consultants suggested starting working earlier on Friday because — well, you know — it’s proven we’re less productive and more error-prone by the afternoon.
If you can arrange it, and start earlier, you might be able to accomplish more before the sluggishness creeps in. And you can get out ahead of the crowd, knowing you were more productive than most of them!
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