Best day of the week to take off?

[WealthyDoc]

Thanks to PoF and some great posts (such as this one: http://www.physicianonfire.com/parttimenumber/ )  I have been more seriously considering part time work.  I have already dropped a lot of responsibilities and hours over the last couple years.  I currently don't take off a day during the week.  One way of going part time would be to take a weekday off each week.  If so, which one is best?

Monday or Friday would give a three day weekend every week.  How awesome does that sound?

One doctor recommended Tuesdays.  It breaks up the week.  Also, a lot of holidays are on Monday and he gets a four day weekend whenever that happens.

Currently I'm leaning towards Wednesday.  The thought of never working more than two days in a row sounds pretty sweet!  I would think that would reduce risk of burnout and boost career longevity.

Any thoughts or experience that you guys can share?

 

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

My father (dentist) had every Monday off his entire career. He didn't retire early, but he enjoyed 3-day weekends for 30 years (and 4-day weekends for 10 more) before retiring.

I would immediately rule out Tuesday and Thursday. Either go with the 3-day weekend (Friday or Monday) or Wednesday so that you never work more than 2 days in a row.

Glad to hear the post inspired you!

-PoF

 

 

[Otodoc]

im pretty sure we have had this exact question asked before in another thread.  I personally take off thursday afternoon.  That work great with my schedule because i dont operate on thursday or fridays.  So if i want a long weekend, i can just cancel friday clinic, and leave town thursday by 2pm.  Would be even better if i took the whole day thursday off.  If i was in your shoes, i would definitely do fridays because a long weekend every weekend is great.  Lot of people say wednesday but that would be my last choice.  Working 4 or 5 days straight still seems simple to me.  I'm only 9 years out from residency and can handle the hours.  What i want is blocks of time to travel, even if only a short distance away.  that's why i recommend friday.  but monday would be fine for that too. but maybe you dont want to travel.  so maybe my opinion is worthless :lol:

[G]

https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/forums/topic/which-day-off-per-week/

[Kamban]

Monday is usually a busy day for me with patients who have had issues over the weekend wanting to come in and have it addressed.  My work requires block days of 3-5 days and hence Mon-Thu works well for me. Fridays is my days off that I can covert to a half day if needed. I can also catch up on paperwork and do some reading so that Sat and Sundays are totally free.

[Hatton]

I now take Monday and Friday off. For years I took off Thursday.

[Dr. Mom]

Always had Fridays off.  It's great.

[TheGipper]

Friday baby Friday!

[Antares]

I haven't worked a Wednesday in 23 years. No matter how stressful things may be, never more than two days a week makes it eminently manageable.

[pistolpete]

My vote is for Friday off! Get that weekend started early!

[Anesthesia84]

Depends what your goals are! I have multiple young (preschool/ school age) kids so I love breaking up my week with a mid-week day off. When they're older and we are back to traveling, the long weekends would be nice.

[DMdoc]

I've had fridays off since I started my first job out of fellowship (2 years now) - it's great because I can take short trips without having to cancel clinic. While I was working in a clinic setting between residency and fellowship, they gave me Tuesdays off - it sucked because I still had 3 more days left after that one day.

[VagabondMD]

All of them! I am looking forward to the fall when I will have every day off, every other week.

[Zaphod]

I have mondays off and its pretty great. While before I had tuesday off, that actually wasnt bad since it broke up the week and I never worked more than 3 days in a row (life is rough I know). However, my monday was clinic day and in a small office a lot of weekend riff raff shows up on monday and you get to see it. Having mondays off really improved that aspect as well as making long weekends easier to schedule, for example now my fourth of july is an automatic 4 day weekend, pretty awesome.

Friday would be great as well, but have never had that day. Actually I think the perfect schedule is tues-thurs.

[Strider_91]

Friday is the best day off because a lot of things are closed on Mondays. All of the haircutters and dog groomers and even a lot of restaurants are closed on Mondays by me so having that Friday off to crush through your chores is way better for the three day weekend. The only major major pro Monday off has is that whenever you are traveling you will never get caught coming home in terrible weekend traffic. People are way more likely to take off Friday for a 3 day weekend than a Monday.


I'd go with Friday.