The last Friday the 13th of the year: a short guide to a day when the calendar gets the blame

Today is Friday, 13 November, the last such day this year. In February and March you could still claim you had no time to prepare, but there are no excuses left: this is the calendar’s third warning of the year.

In the morning

• Get out of bed on the right foot. If you cannot remember which one that is, stay in bed and tell the office you are working from home.
• Clean the bathroom mirror very carefully. Seven years of bad luck is longer than any car lease.
• If the coffee machine is broken this morning, it is not the supernatural. It is Friday.

At work

• Send important emails on Monday rather than today. To be fair, you would do the same on any other Friday.
• If your computer suddenly starts updating, do not blame fate. It would have happened anyway, exactly five minutes before the meeting.
• The colleague who loudly announces “I’m not superstitious” will most likely knock quietly on the desk afterwards. A wooden one, of course.

In the evening

Forecasters expect sunny spells and brief showers in places on Friday. Which means the umbrella will be in exactly the bag you left at home. But relax: the next Friday the 13th is not until August 2027, so for almost nine months you can blame anything else for your troubles, from the weather to roadworks to the neighbours, just not the calendar.