When are workers most productive in the office? It may not be when you expect.

The phrase “having a case of the Mondays” often brings about a negative connotation, but it turns out Monday is the most productive day in a workplace, according to a new survey.

Staffing firm Accountemps concluded after a survey that workers get the most work done on Mondays and their productivity decreases as the week goes on. Twenty-nine percent of people surveyed say they are most productive on Mondays and 27 percent said they are on Tuesday.

“It is interesting; historically Tuesday has been the most productive day,” said Lindo Gharib, the regional director for employment agency Robert Half in Lexington. “Part of it is in today’s world, people have a chance to get recharged more from the weekend and have time off where they aren’t in the midst of work as much. During the workweek, people feel like they can never shut it off, with emails and being on their phone in the evening at home.”

It should come as no surprise that Friday is the least productive day in the workplace. People are more concerned about their weekend plans, Gharib said.

Around 75 percent of the 2,800 people surveyed by Accountemps, a Robert Half company, said they are most productive in the early morning hours. Perhaps its the morning coffee jolt wearing off, but their efficiency drops off mightily as the day progresses. Only 22 percent of surveyed people get more work done after lunchtime.

Gharib said a way employees can increase their efficiency in the workplace is by planning their day.

“You can do that first thing in the morning or the end of the your day for the next day,” he said. “Take 10, 15 minutes to list things you want to accomplish for the day and prioritize them.”

Accountemps lists aiming for quality rather than quantity, knowing when your best time for productivity is and trimming to-do lists as other ways to be efficient at work.

But sometimes due to distractions, accomplishing tasks in a workplace can be a challenge. Nearly a third of the surveyed individuals found overly chatty and social colleagues as their biggest distractions. Another 22 percent said other office noise — such as coworkers’ phone calls, music playing and noise from the break room — is their biggest interruption at work.

Noise at work is sometimes unavoidable, especially in an era where open-office workrooms are more common. The majority of 18-34-year-olds actually prefer an open office, while older workers prefer private offices with a closed door, according to the survey.

“A lot of companies now are in an open setting with team-based environments, so that’s what younger people are comfortable with,” Gharib said. “They get excited with the opportunity to interact with other people and learn from each other, so that’s why they prefer open spaces.”

This story was originally published July 26, 2019 at 2:55 PM.