How long does it take you to complete the NY Times crossword

Me, about an hour+/-

In about 20 minutes.

that the Monday puzzle is the easiest, and they get progressively harder as the week goes on?

I've been doing them for decades, and never knew that. Just learned it recently.

As you say, working up from an easier Monday. But what does that mean for Fri and Sat? Don't know.

For the Sunday crossword, I can do it in about an hour too. But there are times when I get stuck--I hate it when it's a general knowledge problem rather than a word. Like references to famous people in sports or entertainment. (I lived abroad for many years and missed a lot of pop culture stuff.)

I do find that if I'm stuck and just let it go, the answer often jumps out at me when I go back to it. The mind is a wonderful thing.

I can do it in under 15 minutes, usually anyway. Thursday's? Maybe by then my brain is shot, but I can rarely finish it.

I poke away at the Sunday puzzle during the week so I don't know how long it takes to do the whole thing.

I take the full week to complete it. I do them in between doing other things to help me relax. If I get out of the habit it feels impossible to do when I start them again.

I would shoot for 10 minutes ....

Monday IS the easiest, and I usually finished in ten ....

Tuesday ? ... 12 ....

Wednesday ? ... 15 ....

Thursday ? ... 30 ....

Friday ? .... 60

Saturday ? ... sheeeesh .... MAYBE 1 - 2 hours ....

I didnt ALWAYS finish, mind you .... I liked timing myself, and I simply quit after those allotted times .... I dont use a reference during the puzzle: it seemed like cheating ...

...for 2 years now. I finally finished it, but I still carry it around, hoping that someone will notice that I finished a New York Times Sunday puzzle.

i used to do them regularly on my commute into manhattan. i would start when the ferry left hoboken, 8 minutes to cross the hudson.

monday was easiest. i could often do nearly all the puzzle without looking at the 'down' clues.

if you do it regularly, you get the hang not only of doing crosswords generally, but the particular style of clue-writing and puzzle-making. they use certain favorite words and such. it makes it a lot easier when you're inside the puzzle-maker's head.

i'll confess the friday was hard to do in 8 minutes, i only got that one nailed about a third of the time. always finished it on the way home, though.

the sunday ones were a real pleasure, especially figuring out the gimmick. no i could never do one in 8 minutes! i never tried to speed through one, i usually took a couple hours while watching t.v.

now i've kinda lost interest in those puzzles, i like the times-of-london style now. the clues are MUCH harder, and emphasize wordplay more than vocabulary.

both are in the archives.

gave up that hobby.

But I'm a crossword puzzle maniac.

Bake.