As I was perusing through my Google Reader Feeds today, I noticed and clicked on the “Trends” button for the first time. I wasn’t too surprised by the number of items read in the last 30 days, or the time of day that I read the most items, but when I clicked on the “Day of the Week” tab, I was blown away by what I saw:

Google Reader Trends: I don't read feeds on Tuesday?

I don’t check my feeds on Tuesdays?

When I thought about this for a second, I realized that this really is an accurate graph of my average week. I come in on Monday feeling detached, so I tend to catch up on everyones blogs and get reacquainted with my current projects, but I never feel like I’ve gotten enough work done on Monday. This usually leads to a self-imposed sense of urgency by the end of the day Monday, which in turn leads to a distractionless, work-focused Tuesday. By Wednesday I’m feeling confident that I can meet all of the necessary deadlines and try to catch back up with the outside world. Thursday brings the realization that I overcompensated on Wednesday so I buckle back down and get a reasonable amount of work done while still taking enough personal time to stay connected. In an ideal world, every day would go like Thursday. It’s the perfect balance between productivity and social awareness…but then comes Friday. Friday tends to be the day everybody want to go out for lunch, or walk to Starbucks, or hang out talking about weekend plans. It’s a fun day in the office, but somehow I manage to read just as many feeds on Friday as I do on Monday. You can just imagine what that does for my productivity.

So what about you? If you use Google Reader, what does your trends screen say about your average week. Discover any interesting patterns?