I often wonder why we feel good on a Friday and I asked our good friend ChatGPT and it gave me a few reasons to self reflect. The reasons it gave were these – Psychological release, The weekend being a symbol of freedom, The embrace of a social rhythm, The anticipation of rest, escape from identity pressure, bad week relief, end of decision fatigue. I liked the list and decided to reflect on each of them.

Psychological release: We all meet with different levels of psychological pressure at work. Depending on our nature of work, the kind of interactions we had over the week, the people we work with and their moods and our moods, What our collated weekly feeling about work has been and so on. This is also probably because we think weekends will not give us psychological pressure. That need not be true. My psychological pressure comes from me taking things too seriously at work or at home. How do we release that pressure valve slowly?

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” — Anne Lamott

The weekend is a symbol of freedom: Freedom to wake up late? Maybe… I wake up around 5AM everyday but even on weekends I cannot sleep beyond 6:30AM. But that 1 extra effort where I can wake up knowing that I can afford to sleep even late is a freedom. But then there is the freedom of an early morning on the weekend where you can lazily navigate through the day for me with a book in the coffee shop or watching a movie on Mubi or just not having much to do or meeting a friend for a drink. Not pre-planned large gatherings. If I have a packed weekend with activities one after another, I am not free.

“Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.” — Albert Camus

The embrace of a social rhythm: Social Rhythms are so important. One way to look at it is that the weekend gives us a social connection to be with people outside work and spend on non-work related activities. It can also be that we just get our ‘me-time’ after being with people for five days, that solitude. Either way there is a rhythm we embrace and Friday is that shifting point.

“The human spirit is not a machine; it thrives on rhythm, on alternating activity and rest.” — Carl Jung

The anticipation of rest: Rest is such an overlooked aspect of modern life. What is rest can be very different for many of us. Yes, sleep is pretty much the same, but how we get psychological rest can be different. I usually don’t have any sleep to catch up over the weekend because I get 6-7 hours every day. But yes, psychological rest is an important aspect of the weekend. And sometimes you don’t get enough. Last weekend I made a 30 minutes video on the question ‘what makes us human’ in the non-biological sense. And that was also rest in a way.

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day… is by no means a waste of time.” — John Lubbock

Escape from identity pressure: What is the identity we connect with most? Is the work identity a put up that constraints us? Does being in that identity feel like being in a straitjacket? Is that what we are escaping? I don’t know. I believed the ‘true self at work’ theory till lately but now I don’t. I have my personal self and my professional self and I do have cross connections. But what is the pressure on my identity? Do I need to escape that over the weekend? Can I? These are all interesting questions. I just completed writing a 6 page professional plan for me exposing my vulnerable self to myself and understanding the things I have no control over and the things I have control over. I am starting a personal plan in the similar lines. I hope that will give me clarity to some of these questions.

“We are not what we do; we are what we are.” — Thomas Merton

Bad week relief: Yes that is something that happens to me. There are different kinds of weeks. And yes there is a relief when it ends. But that relief ends on a Sunday evening if that badness or badity raises its head on Monday. We will talk about Monday blues another day. But I think if we close a Friday on a good note, with no arguments then it is better. I think we all have the opportunity to do that when everyone is happy on a Friday. Maybe we all should look at Friday as the day we enable our co-workers for a good weekend.

“Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax.” — Mark Black

End of decision fatigue: I think our goal in life and work should be to minimize the decisions we have to take to navigate through the chaos. Being able to put things on auto pilot is important. I have not been able to but I am getting better at it. As I started uncovering my decision paradigms I realized so many decisions I can do without (which movie to watch on OTT excluded). I still spend way more time clicking the OTT platform than watching. I prefer the theaters. That focus on a movie. I have been recently been watching a lot of Kelly Reichardt. I also think discipline is one thing that can help us not having to take many decisions in a day.

Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential. – Agile Manifesto

My wish to me and others however is “Have a great weekend that makes us feel excited on Sunday evening”