Most productivity advice tells you to tackle your most important work first thing Monday morning. Start the week strong. Get the big rocks in place. But what if doing the opposite – intentionally loading up Monday with administrative tasks – could actually lead to a more productive week?

It sounds counterintuitive, but front-loading your administrative work can avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed with administration, and create the mental space and uninterrupted time blocks you need for meaningful academic work.

The goal isn’t to avoid admin work, but to contain it so it doesn’t spill across your entire week, disrupting deeper tasks that require sustained focus.

Why this works

When you dedicate Monday primarily to administrative tasks, you:

• Complete small tasks that would otherwise create mental friction throughout the week
• Batch similar types of work together, reducing the cognitive cost of context switching
• Create protected time blocks for deep work during your peak energy days
• Start Tuesday with a clear mind, ready to dive into substantive projects

Making it work

You might be thinking that dedicating Mondays to admin goes against your institution’s culture, where important meetings often happen at the start of the week. Or perhaps you’re concerned about missing urgent opportunities by not diving straight into research tasks. The value of this approach is its flexibility – you can adapt it to your circumstances. If Mondays don’t work, choose another day. If a full day feels too much, start with a morning. The core principle remains: deliberately containing administrative work creates more sustainable and productive weeks.

Try starting by setting aside half to two-thirds of your Monday for administrative work. This includes email triage, scheduling, report-writing, form filling, and other necessary but relatively shallow tasks. The remaining time can still be used for important work, but admin takes priority.

The key is being intentional about this choice. Rather than feeling guilty about spending Monday on admin, recognise that you’re strategically containing it to free up mental bandwidth for the rest of the week.

A note of caution

This doesn’t mean completely avoiding admin work other days – that’s usually impossible in academia. But by handling the bulk of it on Mondays, you reduce its ability to derail your focus during prime creative and thinking time mid-week.

Choose the rhythm that works for you. If Monday doesn’t fit your schedule, pick another day. The principle remains the same: deliberately batch administrative work to protect space for deeper thinking.

Build sustainable habits that create the head space you need for meaningful academic work. Sometimes that means starting your week with the small stuff to make room for the big things.

Starting your week intentionally with admin work embodies a central principle of calm productivity: creating sustainable systems that reduce anxiety. Rather than letting administrative tasks create constant background tension, this approach gives you permission to tackle them head-on, creating the mental space needed for focused scholarly work. When you deliberately contain admin work, you’re not just managing your time – you’re managing your energy and attention in a way that supports long-term academic success.

If you’re interested in exploring more strategies for protecting your time and mental energy, the Time Management for Academics course offers a comprehensive framework for developing these kinds of sustainable practices. From establishing effective boundaries to creating protected time blocks, you’ll learn practical approaches for managing the unique demands of academic life while maintaining calm productivity.