Shift Happens: WTF Happened To Friday? The UK’s new weekly rhythms

Client: The Guardian

Shift Happens is the Guardian’s flagship annual cultural insights report - a major research investment that shapes how we talk to advertisers about how the nation is living: their inner lives, what brings them joy and how they’re connecting with each other.

In 2025, for the third instalment of Shift Happens, we partnered with Magenta Research, taking Shift global for the first time by teaming up with Guardian Advertising Australia. We wanted to uncover the changing weekly rhythms of the UK and Australia - what people are actually doing with their days and weeks? Has a pandemic hangover and WFH culture killed Friday? Are people launching their radical second acts at the weekend? Is Cinderella partying and early bedtimes here to stay? Our research found nearly 70% of the UK say their weekly routine has dramatically shifted in the past three years - and no day has had a bigger makeover than Friday. So far three editions of Shift Happens - a research brand with real longevity - has made the Guardian £2.7 million in revenue and an annual cultural event agencies love to put into their media planning cycles.