{"id":257,"date":"2014-09-11T03:59:48","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T07:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/?p=257"},"modified":"2026-04-01T16:21:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T16:21:45","slug":"monday-vs-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/11\/monday-vs-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"When to Take Your Day Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know everyone in ministry has a different schedule so while I don’t want to make a blanket statement I think it’s a mistake for many pastors to take Monday off vs Friday<\/strong>. Let me share four\u00a0reasons why:<\/p>\n

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  1. When you take Monday off you’re\u00a0playing catch up the rest of the week. Instead of getting ahead,\u00a0you start the work week off one day behind.<\/li>\n
  2. When you take Monday off you’re\u00a0pushing sermon prep to later in the week. And as we all know, the closer we get to Sunday without the\u00a0sermon finished, the higher our\u00a0stress levels rise.<\/li>\n
  3. When you take Monday off you’re giving your family the one day a week you’re most likely to be emotionally and physically drained.<\/li>\n
  4. It’s inefficient. When you take Monday off you’re breaking up your work week in a weird way. How many people do you know (not in ministry) who work Monday, then take Tuesday\u00a0off, then go back to work Wednesday\u00a0through Saturday? You may know someone with that schedule but it’s gonna be the exception to the rule, not the norm. The norm is to work five consecutive days in a row (Monday through Friday). Why? Because breaking up your work week is inefficient. It’s better to complete your work in five consecutive days vs taking your day off in the middle of those five days.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    One of my college professors taught me not<\/em> to take Mondays off.<\/strong> I’ve lived by his advice and am better off for it for the following four\u00a0reasons (the opposite of what’s been listed above):<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. By working on Monday I get a jump start on my work week<\/strong>. While others are falling behind, I’m getting ahead.<\/li>\n
    2. By working on Monday I’m able to\u00a0finish my sermon\u00a0earlier in the week<\/strong>, which eliminates any stress moving into the weekend.\u00a0It also gives me time to think about my message, share it with the staff and make any improvements needed before Sunday.<\/li>\n
    3. By working on Monday I can give my family Friday, a day on which I have more emotional and physical reserves than on Monday<\/strong> (when I’m tired from having preached\u00a0three services on Sunday).<\/li>\n
    4. It’s the most efficient way to get my work done.<\/strong> I work five consecutive days (Sunday through Thursday). Without breaking up my work week by taking a day off in the middle, I get more done. This also gives me Friday and Saturday off every week, which I love and my family appreciates.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      I realize that for some pastors Mondays might be the right day to take off, but for many pastors it just doesn’t make sense. If that’s you, why not re-work your schedule? If you try it and don’t like it you can always go back to what you’re doing now. But I’m confident that once you make the shift, you’ll love it so much that you’ll never go back!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I know everyone in ministry has a different schedule so while I don’t want to make a blanket statement I think it’s a mistake for many pastors to take Monday off vs Friday. Let me share four\u00a0reasons why: When you take Monday off you’re\u00a0playing catch up the rest of the week. Instead of getting ahead,\u00a0you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-failures","7":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mike","author_link":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/author\/mike\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1159,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions\/1159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}