OutKick97%
Navigating The "Twilight Week" Between Christmas And New Year's At Work91%
By Austin Perry0%
12/26/2025, 3:05:16 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Hasty Generalization, and Framing Effect, with Self-Serving Bias as the most egregious example at 48.8% saturation with 375 hits. Analysis detected 1,958 faulty-reasoning hits from 768 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 84.5% and a BS Rank of 91% (2,027 of 21,131 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 90.40% of the article peer group.
Pretending to be productive is an art form.
If you've spent any time at all in corporate America, you know all about what the next week or so has in store.
Christmas is in the rearview and New Year's Eve is still about a week away, meaning many people will either be off from work entirely or trying their best to get absolutely nothing done in the next seven days.
There are many names for this phenomenon, but I like to refer to it as 'Twilight Week.'
Time seems to be nothing more than an abstract theory, and your days will start to blend together as you and the skeleton crew that is your office will slog through the week like a bunch of zombies.
This isn't some new development, nor am I being original with my observations, as several astute members of X have pointed out the absurdity of 'Twilight Week.'
I'm lucky enough to have a job now where I don't have to go into an office nor do I have to do busy work to make it look like I'm being productive, but my time at OutKick is a fairly new venture, so I have had plenty of jobs in the past where 'Twilight Week' has been a real thing.
If you play your cards right, this could be a fun week for those of you working a boring desk job.
You just have to know how to play your cards right.
Podcasts Are Your Best Friend
There's never been a better time to discover a new podcast than 'Twilight Week.'
There's a good chance you don't have a thing on your plate that is particularly pressing, so pop on your headphones and start grinding away at a subject you've always wanted to learn about.
I stumbled upon my favorite 9/11 history podcast during 'Twilight Week' a few years ago at my mind-numbingly awful old job ('Zero Hour' by David de Sola, if you're interested), and it's a staple of mine every time I want to revisit the subject.
If you've ever wanted to learn about something cool like World War II or the Soviet-Afghan Conflict of the 1980s, this week is as good a time as any.
Fake Being Productive
Though you won't be doing anything of importance this week, you will still be expected to at least 'look' like you're busy.
I picked up plenty of skills during my time as part of the 8-5 workforce, but one of my favorites is how to look productive.
If you have two monitors, this should be a breeze.
Orient one monitor so that anyone walking by can't see it, then put whatever it is you're focused on, on that monitor.
Then put up a spreadsheet with a bunch of nonsense on the monitor everyone can see, and toggle to a PDF or something if anyone comes up to your away-facing monitor; at least this way, you have plenty of warning.
You can put anything on the away-facing monitor too.
Maybe there's a bowl game or tv show you want to watch.
BAM! It's up on the monitor.
This way, you can look busy while still enjoying yourself.
It's foolproof!
Extra Long Lunches
It's not often you get an office with very few of your bosses – or potentially none at all – so take advantage of the power vacuum by enjoying some new culinary options.
Is there a new restaurant you've been dying to try near the office, but it's a little too far away to make it back in time?
'Twilight Week' is the perfect time to give it a shot.
Who cares if your hour lunch turns into a 90-minute one?
Your bosses are all on a cruise in Cozumel.
What the hell are they going to do about it?
Invite some coworkers you don't get to talk to enough and brand it as a 'team-building exercise.'
These LinkedIn vampire types love that kind of stuff.
Working the week between Christmas and New Year's can suck, but it doesn't have to be a death sentence.
My dad always told me that life is what you make of it, so this week, do me a favor and take back the time that corporate America stole from you and have the best 'Twilight Week' possible.
Or get a kick-ass job like I do and then working doesn't even feel like work.
What can I say?
I'm blessed.
I'd love to hear what some of your favorite 'Twilight Week' rituals are to make the time go by faster.
Email me at austin.perry@outkick.com and let me know!
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