What Makes a Good Day?

Notes from a Coach’s Friday

At the beginning of this year, I made a deliberate shift. I moved to a four-day workweek,, by choice. Fridays became mine. Not for catching up. Not for collapsing. But for something else entirely.

When I told my coach about the change, she asked me a deceptively simple question:

"What does the perfect Friday look like?"

Not what do you need to do. Not what you should do. What does a perfect Friday feel like?

So I experimented. I played. I noticed.

Here’s what I’ve discovered so far.

Start in my day simply

No alarm. No rush. I wake up when my body’s ready, not when my calendar demands it. Before I even get up, I do some deep breathing, just a few minutes to feel myself arriving in the day.

Then it's shower, shave, and shine (yes, I still like to feel put together, even on a slow day). And then I’m outside.

Tea in hand. Dog at my feet. A book in my lap.

I sit in the soft morning light and read. Some days it's a novel. Other days, it's something that stirs my coaching soul, lately, The Philosopher and the Wolf. And always, I listen. To the birds. To the breeze. To whatever is whispering underneath the surface.

The Morning ('til lunch)

After that, it’s time for reflection. I revisit the week, coaching conversations, client insights, ideas that bubbled up and didn’t get airtime. I write. Sometimes it's journaling, sometimes blog planning. I map out my video ideas. I check my calendar, not for what’s next, but for what matters.

It’s not about maximizing output. It’s about syncing with what feels alive.

The Afternoon

Lunch is almost always social. Friends. Colleagues. Fellow coaches. Coffee, chats, wandering conversations that spark new ideas or help me let go of old ones. Nothing urgent. Nothing forced.

And curiously, these conversations often end up as the seeds for the next week’s work. It’s like life is feeding the practice, even when I’m not trying.

No ice baths. No 5 a.m. club. Just space. Spaciousness. Spacious being.

Not every Friday is perfect. But more often than not, they are good, in the true sense of the word. Grounding. Nourishing. Replenishing. A way to remember why I do the work, not just how.

And now I’m curious. What does your perfect Friday look like? Not the one that sounds good in a productivity podcast. The one that sounds like you.

Because sometimes, the best way to design your life is to notice the days you don’t want to escape from.