By way of introduction, I'm a novice NYT crossword solver. I solve in syndication-land (meaning that my local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, carries it with a three-week delay for daily puzzles and a one week-delay for the Sunday puzzle.
Since the puzzle gets more challenging and more sophisticated between Monday and Saturday, I usually solve Monday through Wednesday without much trouble, and the occasional Thursday before skipping over Friday and Saturday to work on Sunday.