Why Mondays and Fridays Are the Most Productive Writing Days in My Community

It always makes me smile: the Monday and Friday writing sessions in my co-writing community are almost always the first ones to fill up.

You’d think it would be the opposite. Monday has a heavy reputation. And by Friday, everyone’s tired. But over time, I’ve noticed a pattern that keeps repeating—and it says a lot about how academics approach their writing.

The Psychology of Monday and Friday

Monday often feels like a chance to get a head start. A way to set the tone for the week, especially when you're deep in an academic article or working toward a deadline on an academic book.

Friday, on the other hand, carries a different kind of energy: the desire to complete something. Not just to write, but to tick something off. To leave the desk with a sense of closure. To go into the weekend without guilt.

And that’s exactly what I see happening in these sessions.

What PhDs, Postdocs, and Professors Write in One Hour

In my co-writing community, every session is 60 minutes long—and that time frame changes how people approach their writing.

Here’s a snapshot of some of the goals people brought to a recent Friday morning session:

• “Finish two paragraphs I’ve been avoiding for days”

• “Restructure the old version of my subchapter”

• “Write the final section of the introduction so I can stop thinking about it”

• “Go through the proofs and submit for good”

• “Tackle these six bullet points in my introduction draft”

• “Finish this subsection so I can start the weekend without guilt”

These aren’t vague or overly ambitious goals. They’re targeted. Each one is scoped to fit into a single hour.

And that’s intentional. I guide the members of my writing group—whether they’re PhD students, postdocs, or senior researchers—to avoid general goals like “I’m writing on my thesis” or “I’m working on my book.” That kind of vagueness makes it really hard to know if you’ve made progress.

Instead, we focus on specific, achievable aims that create clarity. You know exactly what you're trying to do, and when the hour ends, you know whether you’ve done it.

What Happens When You Write Like This

This approach does something quietly radical. It shifts academic writing from something open-ended and overwhelming to something bounded and finishable.

You're not stuck in the story that writing must be a long, draining ordeal. You're not waiting for a free day or an open weekend to finally get to it. You're not piling writing onto your evenings just to keep up.

You write during your workday, with intention, and then—most importantly—you stop.

This is especially important for academics juggling multiple responsibilities: teaching, supervision, admin, fieldwork, peer review, and life. Writing is part of the job, but it often gets treated like an extra.

A Sustainable Academic Writing Practice Starts Small

If you're not sure where to begin, or if writing still feels like a stressful afterthought, I want to offer a place to start: Academic Writing Month inside my co-writing community.

It’s a free, month-long space designed to help you build a writing rhythm that actually fits your life. We start with a live planning session, and then move into regular co-writing, check-ins, and practical prompts to support your academic writing—whether you're working on a chapter, an article, a grant proposal, or your first book.

It’s not about pressure or performance. It’s about showing up, doing one specific thing, and letting that be enough for today.

If that sounds like something you’d like to try, you’re warmly invited to join us.

Sign up for AcwriMo x EMERGE in November 2025!