After a few days of rest and relaxation, it can be difficult to come in to work and be productive on a Monday. The popular movie, Office Space, describes this all too familiar experience as “a case of the Mondays.” It’s ironic that the first day back to work, after recharging our batteries all weekend, is often the least efficient day of the week. Front loading your work schedule means scheduling your most important and largest tasks or projects on Monday or Tuesday. This is the most effective way to jump start your work week and eliminate your “case of the Mondays.”
When you’re planning your schedule for the week, you should also try to have very few new tasks or items on a Friday; ideally, your projects and tasks should decrease in significance as well as volume throughout the week. This allows you extra buffer time later in the week if a project or task is taking longer than expected, reducing the stress of not finishing an important task or project and worrying about meeting end of the week deadlines.
Front loading also allows you to tackle your most important projects and tasks when you have the most ‘potential energy.’ This makes you more efficient and makes the time you spend on each project or task more productive. Putting the most important tasks at the beginning of the week also allows you to start winding down towards the end of the week when you have lower levels of energy, because you’re left with tasks that are less important and less stressful.
According to Dave Navarro, a productivity blogger, “Front loading is simply the act of slamming out results in the early part of the schedule, rather than the latter. In other words, move your “crunch time” to the very start. By forcing yourself to think in crunch mode right off the bat, you’ll have a much easier time of avoiding distractions, staying focused, and delivering great results.”
