Monday gets a bad rap, but Tuesday is the real problem.

Hear me out. On Monday, you have the energy of the weekend in your sails. On Monday, you are generally well-rested. On Monday, people are still asking you, “how was your weekend?” and you have stories to tell.

By Tuesday, you are cozying up to that second cup of coffee like it’s the fountain of youth. You have not even reached the halfway point of the week. No one asks, “how was your Monday evening?“

I have posited this position many times and found counter-arguments underwhelming. But then recently, I faced a new version of this and was genuinely stumped.

The quandary: let’s say you’re permitted to work a 4-day week. What day do you choose off?

My sister and I debated this last night while stuck in a 50-minute, real-life version of one of our favorite childhood games, Rush Hour. Consider the following:

1. Take Friday off: the obvious choice. A consistent long weekend, and Fridays are usually quiet so you’re not “missing” much.
   
2. Take Monday off. A consistent long weekend, and Fridays are usually quiet and you’re not “missing” much! But when would you get your best heads-down work done if you didn’t work Fridays?
   
3. Take Wednesday off. Two days of high quality work, take a breath and run your errands, and two more days of quality work, with the Friday quiet.

Or, as a colleague put it when we joked our way through this informal icebreaker… “then again, you could choose Thursday or Thursday, but then you’d obviously be a sociopath.”

I’m curious: what would you choose?

Related: other ways to make the mundane memorable // in defense of Tuesday…