There’s one thing in the way of your fun filled weekend. It’s called Friday. Let’s be honest. We have 3 goals every Friday.

1) Make it go by like the speed of light.

2) Enjoy it and start the weekend in a good mood.

3) Stay constructive enough to avoid being chewed out on Monday.

If you accomplish this trifecta you get to start your weekend with a solid feeling of awesomeness. Friday is not an extension of Saturday, its 20% of your work week – so don’t waste it!

Tip #1 – Have a Team Lunch

No other team lunch is more cheery than a Friday lunch. No other lunch is more dreary than a Monday lunch. On Mondays I feel like I could cut the silence with a knife. It’s like no one speaks the same language. On Fridays it’s like we’ve been given the gift of speech! Team lunches also do an awesome job of breaking the day. Breaks improve productivity especially when they’re sanctioned and “everybody is doing it”. You don’t need to be a manager to initiate one – anyone on the team can suggest it.

Tip #2 – Create a challenge

Create a challenge to finish something before the end of the day and have an early departure be the reward. Obviously the challenge needs to be realistic or it could turn out disastrous. A late Friday night at the office to turn in something YOU promised. If you’re a manager you can set the challenge for the team and authorize the early departure. If you’re not, you could say something like “boss – I was hoping to leave early if I finish this assignment by 4. I don’t have to leave early but it would be nice to get a jump start on prep for my dinner party tonight. I’ll see how it goes and keep you posted. Is that ok with you?” Managers know that employees are likely to slack off on Fridays anyways so they’d love to get something delivered on a Friday afternoon. FYI – If your assignment is already late don’t be a smart ass and ask to leave early for getting it in before the weekend.

Tip #3 – Create laughter

Unless you’re the next coming of Chris Rock, don’t do stand up, send the jokes out in email. I used to work with someone that sent out jokes once a week to a “not company related” email group. I never met him but I loved and miss that guy – a lot!

Since it’s Friday – here’s “I don’t care Friday!”:

In honor of my ex coworker with the jokes, here’s one of his classics:

There was a farmer who grew watermelons. He was doing pretty well, but he was disturbed by some local kids who would sneak into his watermelon patch at night and eat his watermelons.

After some careful thought, he came up with a clever idea that he thought would scare the kids away for sure. He made up a sign and posted it in the field. The next night, the kids showed up and they saw the sign which read, “Warning! One of the watermelons in this field has been injected with cyanide.”

The kids ran off, made up their own sign and posted it next to the farmer’s sign. When the farmer returned, he surveyed the field. He noticed that no watermelons were missing, but the sign next to his read, “Now there are two!”

Happy Friday – may it be short and sweet! Enjoy – because soon it will be Monday…