They regulate our very existence. And while we cherish some and hold significance for others, we accept the days of the week without question. Historians are unsure who exactly came up with the idea for a seven-day week as a means to mark the passing of time. The late Roman Empire had a hand in it, as did the Christian church – which used the Bible as source material: God, we’re told, created the world in six days and then rested on the seventh.
Have a look at our interactive guide to Good Days and Bad Days for performing tasks.
Had he instead chosen a midweek break over waiting until Sunday, it is possible we would all be sighing into our breakfasts on a Thursday, rather than a Monday, morning. As it is, Monday gets the groans. Monday is no different to any other weekday in the simple regard that most of us have to do a full day’s work, rather it is a consequence of its immediately following a break that causes it to be so disliked. London School of Economics’ researcher Alex Bryson says that we are less welcoming of any day on which we are due to restart work following a break from our employment. That happens to be Monday for most of us. Yet the interesting thing is that, not only are Mondays unloved, they are also unproductive.
Bryson gathered together the results from various studies on work productivity to see whether days of the week had any influence on levels.
It takes time to get back into your workflow.”Alex Bryson of London School of Economics’
One clear outcome, not surprisingly, was that productivity levels were low following a break. “It takes time,” he says, “to get back into your workflow.”
One might assume that this productivity deficit on the first day of the working week is down to employees’ being grumpy and pining – even daydreaming – about the fun and frolics of Friday and Saturday and the soft downy duvet of Sunday. Yet there is no evidence that people are actually predisposed to worse moods on Mondays.
Indeed, Charles Areni of the University of Sydney and Mitchell Burger of the NTF Group, say Mondays are not as depressing as people imagine. They conducted a survey where people were asked first to give a day-to-day account of their moods, which remained, on average, the same throughout the working week. The participants were then asked to recall their moods from that week – many misremembered: the majority stated Monday was when they were feeling most low. Areni and Burger believe this is because the participants were thinking back with ‘memory bias’ – a tendency to recall the worst incidence of an event we’ve experienced before. Mondays are stereotypically depressing, so the test group simply recalled their worst Mondays.
Motivation expert Andrew Risner, who coaches management teams through his business Empowerment At Work, says that Mondays are a great day to improve your position within a company. The trick is to wait until after lunch. “I often advise people to book in a Monday afternoon to discuss their role with their managers or to talk about a new position,” says Risner. “The reason is that people are already in planning mode. Once they get the morning out of the way they are then thinking about what has to be done next and so it’s a great opportunity to tap into that mindset.” Risner suggests lining up the chat first on a Friday, when people are getting ready for the weekend and in a more receptive state of mind.
I approach a Monday with total enthusiasm. It’s the day that sets the tone for the rest of the week.” Charlie Mullens, Managing Director Pimlico Plumbers
Charlie Mullens, managing director of one of the UK’s largest plumbing firms, Pimlico Plumbers, and one of Channel 4’s Secret Millionaires, agrees with Risner. For him, Monday is the best time to discuss work issues. “I approach a Monday with total enthusiasm,” he reveals. “It’s the day that sets the tone for the rest of the week.
“If staff want to discuss their work I would rather get it out of the way on a Monday afternoon. It’s then dealt with and we can get on with sowing the seeds for a great week ahead.”
Yet while Monday may have just cause to shed its Manic tag, perhaps another day is ready to wear it: Tuesday. The Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis is running a project called Mappiness. Some 45,000 people have downloaded the centre’s application that asks them to record their mood on an hourly and daily basis. Lead researcher George MacKerron says that it is on a Tuesday morning when people are least happy at work. MacKerron is unable to offer and explanation – the application does not ask people why they are feeling down – but a survey conducted by the nutrition supplement Bimuno offers some insight.
The results of the survey revealed that workers felt most stressed on Tuesdays. The majority of respondents said the second day of the working week was the one on which they make the most phone calls on, and on which they are most likely to work through lunch. It is also the day and the time when people are most likely to look for a new job, turning Tuesday mornings into an opportune time for both prospective employers and workers.
Anton Roe, director of education and training recruitment specialists Alderwood Education, says that its four recruitment sites get the most hits on a Tuesday morning. He adds that Alderwood’s sites are not alone, that Monster has reported the same behaviour. “It means that we are more likely to post new job adverts around that time,” he says.
But Tuesdays aren’t just about stress, frantic phone calls and disloyalty. Angela Carter, an occupational psychologist at Sheffield University’s Institute of Work Psychology, says Tuesday afternoons are also a great opportunity for introducing new ideas about working practices. “Tuesday afternoons are a honeymoon period,” she says. “People have caught up on their work but are not so pressed to complete tasks. People are still open to new ideas and suggestions. This is a great time for discussion.”
So what of the remainder of the week? When it comes to staff training, Anton Roe suggests Wednesdays – as this allows a team to absorb and review the training before the end of the week. Mike O’Brien, senior consultant with training provider ILX, also recommends Wednesdays for getting staff onboard with new practices and policies. “They are no longer mopping up and they still have two days ahead of them to finish their week’s work and so on a Wednesday they can take a breath and be completely focused,” he says. Yet both Roe and O’Brien agree that best days for training depend upon the working patterns of the company and that, for some, Thursdays are the better candidate. This is certainly the case for global IT consultancy Xceed. “Thursdays are is far enough into the week for all key deliverables to be well under way and under control for the week,” says its services director Dan Russon. “Crucially, it puts people back into their roles with the training fresh in their minds. We find it’s beneficial to bring the classroom back into the day job as soon as possible, so that the training and lessons learnt can be tried and applied in a real-world environment as soon as possible.”
Russon adds that for Xceed, as with so many other companies, Friday is the day for tying up loose ends. But while many might be mentally tasting the first sips of a cold beer while putting the week to bed, Anton Roe says managers could be missing out on a good day to kick off the next week with.
“Friday is when we like to reflect on what has happened that week but also to prepare ourselves for the next one,” he says. “We can think about how to do things better, the pressure is off and people are more relaxed. By planning the week ahead on a Friday it stops the stress from building up, people can come in on a Monday knowing that they already have the week in hand.”
Roe is one of an increasing number of managers who sort out work on a Saturday morning. But far from seeing this as a source of stress, he feels that it actually balances out his work. “It’s one of the most productive days for me, a time when I can get all my ducks in a row,” he says. “That means I can shut my work down for the rest of the weekend and I can enjoy my Sunday knowing that on Monday I’m not firefighting.”
Of course, Roe is not the only one enjoying his Sunday. Researchers at the University of Vermont say it is still the world’s favourite day. The team analysed 2.4 million blogs and internet messages to find out which days of the week we love the most by counting the number of positive and negative words used. Sunday came out tops, perhaps because it is the only day when one can legitimately wear pyjamas in the afternoon.