How do I overcome Friday afternoon restlessness?

November 7, 2008 11:32 AM

Every Friday at work, feel restless. I'm not content to sit at my desk. I feel the need to walk around, do something, get out of the office. I can't seem to focus on work, or accomplish much throughout the day. My weekends are particularly exciting, but I just have the overwhelming feeling to get out as soon as possible on a Friday afternoon. What can I do to get over this?
posted by Magister to Work & Money (7 answers total)

Flexitime rocks, if your office allows it. Working 30 minutes later Mon-Thurs and leaving 2 hours early on Friday makes life better.

If you get control of your workflow, try saving the cool projects for Friday. I tend to save my cool coding for Friday so it becomes something to look forward to in itself.
posted by twine42 at 11:35 AM on November 7, 2008

One more vote for flextime: if you know you can leave halfway through the day it's so much easier to get through Fridays. And if you can swing it, working a 4-10 week once a month means a 3-day weekend, which you can use as a guaranteed mini-vacation/backpacking trip/long weekend at the beach. Built-in rewards give you something to work towards and enjoy.

But if that's not possible for whatever reason, you can minimize end-of-week (or mid-afternoon, for that matter) restlessness by avoiding sugary/starchy snacks and getting some quick exercise. Probably good advice in any case...
posted by fracas at 12:17 PM on November 7, 2008

How about pen spinning or coin manipulation to get your mind off your anxiety? There's even a neat little butterfly pen if balisongs are more to your liking.
posted by subajestad at 12:40 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

Make sure you take a nice brisk walk at lunchtime. Don't eat crap for breakfast or lunch. Try to schedule meetings or work that requires you to interact with other humans.

or, just suck it up and deal like the rest of us.
posted by micawber at 12:43 PM on November 7, 2008

You could save up non-critical tasks that you enjoy all week and put them on your to do list for Friday. You could start a community of practice at work, scheduling regular meetings with folks to talk about what you are learning together, or studying something together, a book, or an idea or a paper. Put those on Friday afternoon.

Basically, if focus is your problem, and you aren't getting real work done anyway, and flex time isn't an option, create a work related afternoon full of innovation and invitation. If you commit yourself to doing it with others, then you have someone else to be accountable to, and it will help you stay focused.
posted by salishsea at 12:53 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

Dude, everyone on the planet feels like that. EVERYONE.

Don't plan on doing anything important that requires concentration, make sure to go outside during your breaks and lunch, and otherwise...well, suck it up. Everyone else is too.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:28 PM on November 7, 2008

Maybe divide and conquer? Try to forget about the end of the day - make it 10, then lunch, then mid-afternoon, then quittin' time. Also, seconding the idea of using Fridays as a departure from your normal schedule. I work at home - for me, Fridays are about catching up on random bits of paperwork, scheduling the coming week's calls and appointments, R&D time with lab equipment, and yes, occasional bouts of just plain goofing off.
posted by jquinby at 1:49 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]