The Better Long Weekend

Getting an extra day or two on a weekend is a great feeling. Having the extra time off from work is relaxing and allows for longer trips and more fun to be had. But which is better? Getting off on Friday for a long weekend, or having Monday off? The answer is Monday, due primarily to when the resultant shortened week occurs.

Shortened weeks at work are incredible, because they fly by so quickly. They seem a lot shorter than the 80% of the normal week they actually are. There's an excitement about a shortened week, that could stand alone apart from a long weekend and still be enjoyable. The position of a shortened week in relation to a long weekend, thus, is the difference maker between having Friday off or having Monday off.

If you have a long weekend where Friday is the day off, you have a shortened week before the long weekend. You are excited simultaneously about the shortened week, and about the upcoming long weekend. You have four days of happiness, followed by a great three-day vacation. Overall, you get seven days of enjoyment out of the long weekend.

If you have Monday off, however, you have a regular week, where you spend the whole week looking forward to your long weekend ahead. Then you get the long enjoyable three-day vacation. But when you return to work, you have a shortened week, which is enjoyable in itself! So in all, you get twelve days of enjoyment out of one long weekend! You are being efficient in your enjoyment of your weekend, spreading out the upcoming excitement of a vacation, the vacation itself, and then the excitement of a shortened week.

Thus I praise President's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Labor Day, and Memorial Day. Thank you for giving Monday off!

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Also...if it's a personal three-day weekend, and thus you are flying not on a peak travel weekend, airfares are cheaper if you fly out Saturday morning and come back Monday night, than if you have fly out Friday morning, and come back Sunday night. So always take Mondays off.