In the working world, almost everyone would probably say their favorite day of the week is Friday. However, leading up to when you graduate from high school and move on with your life, the structure of the week looks a lot different. From the buzz in the air of Friday night football games to the Sunday scaries, everybody knows that there are some days better than others. In a recent survey sent out to students at Ipswich High School, we set out to uncover which day holds the top spot here in Ipswich. Senior Spencer McDavitt explained that, “[His] favorite day is Tuesday. [His] academics are super chill and [him and his friends] get to hang out in R-Block.” he adds, “And, during the fall it’s even better because that’s when soccer games are.”
For the sporty type, it was common for people to say their game days or days when practices were shorter. But looking at a different demographic of students more interested in the arts, their reasoning was quite different. When asking around in Art Club, we heard several different viewpoints. Some said that Mondays were the best because that’s when the club meets while others preferred days with R-Block because it allows them to maximize their time in the art room.
There have also been several collegiate studies in recent history that have actual research based around this question. Students studying Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Washington, St Louis collaborated on 5 different studies. One study was a short online survey with a twist, “First, they were instructed to describe a personal goal that they were planning on pursuing in the near future. Next, they received an offer of receiving a customized email to help remind them of their goal and how to accomplish it.” Respondents were then asked to select a day (ranging from Tuesday, March 18-Monday, March 24). Next, “participants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: the fresh start condition or a control condition. In the fresh start condition, March 20th was identified as the first day of spring. In the control condition, March 20th was simply described as an ordinary day: “March 20, 2014 (Thursday; The Third Thursday in March 2014).” With this data, researchers discovered that respondents who were in the fresh start condition 3.5 times as likely to pick March 20th. This is directly related to people who may pick Mondays or Tuesdays as their best day of the week because it proves that people tend to associate productivity with “fresh starts.”
In the survey we sent out to the school, we asked a few simple questions to discuss which day of the week students feel the most tired, and what day they feel the most productive. Monday tends to be the day in which students feel the most tired, which makes sense after a few nights of staying up late on the weekend. It’s also the day where students feel the least productive, getting only one percent of votes on our most productive day question. Friday seems to be the day where most students check out and are mentally done with the week because that got a shocking zero votes on which day students feel the most productive. Tuesdays and Wednesdays
are the prime days for getting lots of work done and feeling highly productive, receiving a staggering ninety percent of votes between the two days. This is most likely because those days are in the middle of the week so everyone is done with the slow slump of Mondays, but also not quite mentally in weekend mode.
For some students, take senior James Norris for example, hold their Thursdays very close. “The early release, mixed with Thursday night football, mixed with the anticipation of the weekend just pushes it to the top over all the other week days.”
Overall, Thursdays and Fridays seem to be the favorite days in the school week because it’s close to the weekend and kids feel energized and happy. But, if you’re looking for a day to get lots of work done and feel productive then use your Tuesdays and Wednesdays wisely.
