Enjoy your summer Fridays

Rethink your schedule, even if you set your own hours

I’ve done some work, over the years, for a few companies that observe “summer Fridays” — basically a half day on Friday from Memorial Day to Labor Day. This modified schedule is usually presented as a perk, but it also recognizes the obvious: most people don’t do much of consequence after lunch on Friday. This is especially true during the summer months, when people are more likely to travel, and want to get on their way before evening.

Of course these days, with a lot of knowledge workers working remotely on Fridays, this is somewhat less of a pain point in people’s schedules. If you can work anywhere, and you’re going somewhere for the weekend, you could leave Thursday night, skip the traffic, and work from your vacation spot on Friday. And even if you’re staying put, if you don’t have a commute, you’ll be done with the day earlier anyway.

Sliding into the weekend

But even if the need is less pressing, the same reality of waning energy is still there. People who work from home get tired by Friday afternoon too. Summer is often a great time to be outside during the day, or to be active.

So, as you look forward to the next few months, you might try to institute some sort of summer Friday schedule, even if no one is dictating your hours. Consciously ending work a little earlier on Fridays can buy you a reasonable amount of time for personal pursuits.

For instance, if you power down the laptop at 2 p.m., you could fit in a 2-hour bike ride before normal quitting time. You could meet a friend for a very early happy hour. You could read a book with no one bothering you. If you have a pool in your backyard, you could float around reading with no one splashing you! Perhaps you could take a yoga class to wind down, or a dance class to wind up. You could do a very early date night with your spouse while you still have childcare, or the kids haven’t gotten off the bus yet.

Don’t waste time not really working

Just make sure you know what you want to do so you don’t waste the afternoon cleaning out your inbox. Or, worse, think you should stay at your desk because that’s what productive people do — and then do absolutely nothing of consequence and fritter away potential leisure time scrolling through social media.

Summer is a great time to do time a little differently. If you acknowledge that you’re not getting much work done, then the time can be redeployed. So why not make the most of it?