The End: My guilt-free work week experiment is complete

Final thoughts on 12 weeks of Investigation Friday

Photo by Alex on Unsplash

It’s done. The 12-week experiment to reconfigure my work week is now officially over. In all honesty, I’m quite relieved. Turns out I didn’t need 12 weeks to figure out that devoting Fridays to personal and professional development works really well for me. If the ultimate test is “will you continue with this beyond the time frame of the experiment?” — then the answer is a resounding YES.

I am declaring the experiment a success because I found a way to:

• Feel less guilty about my work week (which is what prompted the experiment in the first place)
• Increase both my motivation and productivity — and did it from Monday to Thursday without increasing my work hours to an unacceptable level
• Connect with more people in a less pressured and open way
• Make progress on some strategic projects that had previously fallen to the bottom of the pile
• End the week feeling more relaxed than ever before
• Write regularly — something I’ve always talked about wanting to do but never achieved.

I learned some things along the way about how to make the week work best for me. Here are some things I’d recommend if you’re going to try Investigation Fridays for yourself:

• Plan your Fridays in advance — but don’t over plan or overfill them. Doing strategic work and having interesting conversations both require energy. If you overfill your agenda, you’ll end up too tired to do them well. Leave some space for the unexpected and you’ll be surprised at what might happen.
• Make sure you get away from the desk — preferably outside if you can. Schedule walking meetings or listen to a podcast while taking a walk, just as long as you get a change of scenery and some fresh air.
• Spend time on reflection. Write regularly. Pace, momentum and your sense of progress will change from week to week and there’s enormous learning to be had by capturing how you feel over a series of points in time. (I’ve just spent a few minutes looking back over my weekly musings about this experiment and I’m amazed at the things I’d forgotten from only a few weeks ago).
• Zoom out a little. Don’t just think about Friday — consider your entire week. What do you need to achieve? What do you want to achieve? How are they different? What role can your dedicated Friday play in helping you do all the things on your plate?
• Tell your team/clients/stakeholders about your plan. Initially, I was quite nervous to tell people that I was unavailable on Fridays. When I told them why — that I was investing in my own development and working on the business rather than in it — they were incredibly supportive.

It’s going to take some discipline for me to continue working this way now that the experiment is over. I expect that my biggest challenges will be:

1. Staying away from client work, email and social media on Fridays
2. Saying no to clients — and especially prospective clients — when they ask to meet on a Friday
3. Maintaining the discipline of weekly writing

I guess the only way I can manage these challenges is to continue my weekly reflections and make sure I am asking myself questions about each of them — and perhaps installing some kind of app to measure my social media time.

Thanks for hanging in there with me over the last 12 weeks. I’ll be back next week with a new topic…suggestions welcome! Email me with your requests — what in the world of leadership, teams and effectiveness would you like to start a conversation about? If you don’t want to miss out, follow me here on Medium. Cheers!