How Bad Days come in threes.
There’s a theory - not scientifically verified, but emotionally peer-reviewed - that bad things come in threes.
When it comes to Bad Days, it’s not about three in a row. That would be too predictable, and frankly, too convenient. No, three types. Three distinct flavours of “well, this is not going well.”
And the trick, and the only trick, really, is knowing which one you’re in. Because the way out depends on the type of day you’re having.
Type 1: The Slow Sinker
This is the Bad Day you don’t notice happening. There’s no dramatic moment. No slammed laptop. No “I quit” speech rehearsed in the shower. It’s quieter than that.
You’re a bit flat. Then a bit more. You scroll a little longer. You sigh a little heavier. Things feel mildly annoying, then disproportionately annoying, then deeply annoying and somewhere along the way, you’ve slipped into a full-blown “everything is vaguely terrible” mood without a clear entry point.
This is the slow sink.
The danger here isn’t the Bad Day itself. It’s the lack of awareness. Because when you don’t notice it, you don’t intervene. And when you don’t intervene, the day stretches. It deepens. It becomes less “a moment” and more “a state of being.” You start narrating it: Of course this is happening. Things like this always happen.
Now you’re not just having a Bad Day, you’re building a storyline.
What helps here is surprisingly simple: noticing. Not fixing. Not solving. Not turning it into a growth opportunity worthy of a TED Talk. Just noticing - Ah. This is a bad day.
That small moment of awareness is often enough to stop the slide getting steeper. It gives you back a sliver of agency — and sometimes, a sliver is all you need.
Type 2: The Band-Aid Day
This is the one where you do notice. You clock it early. You feel the wobble. And instead of letting it run, you make a decision. Not today.
So you distract.
You go for a walk. You reorganise a drawer that absolutely did not need reorganising. You watch something mildly ridiculous. You text someone who knows how to be normal when you are not.
This is the Band-Aid approach. A little antiseptic. A quick cover. Move on. And here’s the important part: this is not avoidance. This is a strategy. Because not every bad day deserves a full emotional excavation.
Some things are fleeting. Some frustrations are noise, not signal. Some Bad Days dissolve the moment you stop staring directly at them. You wake up the next morning and think, What was that even about? Exactly. That’s the win.
The Band-Aid day is about proportion. It’s about recognising that sometimes the most effective response is a gentle redirect, not a deep dive. You didn’t ignore it. You just didn’t give it more airtime than it deserved.
Type 3: The Rake Day
And then… there’s this one. You know the scene. You step outside. There’s a rake on the ground. You step on it. It flips up and smacks you square in the face. Absurd. Painful. Slightly humiliating. Now imagine doing that… again. The next morning. Same rake. Same face. This is the Rake Day. Except instead of a garden tool, it’s a conversation, a pattern, a problem or a feeling you haven’t dealt with.
You distract yourself. You move on. You tell yourself it’s fine. And then, whack. There it is again.
This is the Bad Day that doesn’t want a Band-Aid. It wants attention. Because it’s not random. It’s recurring. And recurring problems have a way of getting louder when they’re ignored.
The instinct here is often to keep distracting. To stay busy. To hope it resolves itself if you just give it enough time. But Rake Days don’t work like that. They’re less like a passing mood and more like a message. Something is off. Something needs adjusting. Something, and this is the key, is still in the middle of your path.
This doesn’t mean you need to fix everything immediately or perfectly. It just means you need to move the rake. That might be a conversation you’ve been avoiding. A boundary you haven’t set. A decision you’ve been circling. It might be small. It might be uncomfortable. But it’s usually necessary.
So… Which One Is It?
That’s the question.
Because once you can tell the difference, everything gets easier.
If it’s a Slow Sinker, notice it sooner.
If it’s a Band-Aid Day, distract with confidence.
If it’s a Rake Day, stop stepping on the same thing and wondering why your head hurts.
Not every Bad Day needs a grand response. But every Bad Day benefits from the right response. And sometimes, that’s all this is about. Not fixing your whole life. Just working out whether you need to pause, pivot… or pick up a rake and put it somewhere less offensive.