What’s the best day of the week?
Friday of course. Everyone knows that.
From my perspective though, it’s not about it being the last day of work for the week. I assure you, I work almost just as much on the weekends as do during the week. To me, Fridays are just fun. People are energetic and excited about the weekend. They’re feeling good about the work they’ve done for the week and they’re in a more relaxed mood. This is a good feeling and should be encouraged throughout your entire company.
That all said, over the years I’ve also ruined many Fridays. How? By doing things on Friday I’ve learned never to do. Learn from my mistakes and keep Friday’s fun by not doing any of the following at your firm.
1. Don’t send invoices or pay bills: Remember, it’s Friday for your clients, too. No one wants to get a bill on a good day. Further, sending invoices inevitably leads to client questions. Next thing you know, *BOOM!* Phone call city. Friday ruined. Don’t pay bills either. No one wants to pay bills. It just reminds you of how much money you have going out. Save it for another day.
2. Don’t launch something: Don’t ever launch a marketing campaign, website, software product or new internal program on a Friday. Why? Because something is going to go wrong. It’s the first law of the universe. And when something goes wrong with your launch it’s going to take you longer to fix it than you think (that’s universal law #2). Next thing you know you’re either working late or worse, working over the weekend.
3. Don’t schedule meetings: If you spend all days in meetings you’re going to waste your Friday. All that fun, good energy gone to talking about something most likely really boring or stressful. Meetings suck. Don’t have them on Fridays.
4. Don’t make that phone call you’ve been avoiding all week: If you’ve been avoiding it, it’s probably because the phone call is going to be difficult or stressful. So, don’t do it now.
5. Don’t try to finish all the week’s tasks you’re behind on from 4 to 5 p.m. I call it the Friday frenzy. Inevitably, each week I get people blowing me up at 4 p.m. on Friday with all kinds of questions or sending me things they were supposed to earlier that week. What do I do? Ignore. Why? BECAUSE IT’S FRIDAY. Although blasting off all your tasks last minute before you jet out the door on Friday might make you feel better, if you’re dumping them on someone else, you’re killing their Friday. Don’t be a Friday Killer.
So, if you’re avoiding all of these things what you be doing with your Fridays? Simple:
Finish work you haven’t had time to all week
Not the stressful stuff you’ve avoided (see #4 above), but the things that need your attention before the end of the day. Since you have lots of energy and you’re not having any meetings you should be able to knock to-dos out left and right.
Think strategically.
Since you’re in a good head space and feeling positive, use that energy to put down some creative ideas or spend time on strategy. The best time to do both of these things is when you’re feeling good and have open time.
Invest in your company culture.
Do something for or with your team. Buy lunch, cut out early, have a company contest, go to happy hour, walk around town. Do something non-work related. Or heck – even work related. Include them in some creative/strategy thinking time.
Reorganize.
Go through all the clutter on your desk and get rid of it. Help clean up the lunch room. Rearrange your conference room to change things up. Paint! Do something to improve your workspace and come to work next week ready to go.
Schedule next week.
Get your week lined out for the following week. This way, you’re not rolling all of these things around in your head all weekend or needing to take the time to plan them on the weekend. Get everything ready to go for next week so you can hit the ground running on Monday.
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