Reclaim Your Weekends!
Hello weekend!
A few weeks back I attended a staff meeting at a program I’m helping and the icebreaker activity was talking about what we did over the weekend. I was a little disappointed to hear several of the staff say that they spent their Sundays getting ready for Monday. I wasn’t entirely surprised, though. Whenever I have conversations with people and ask about their weekends, most people will tell me that they spent their Sundays preparing for the work week. That’s a waste of a day off! A lot of us complain that our weekends are too short, but it’s no surprise if we spend half of it getting ready for the work week. Most of us already work five days a week, why give work another day? Worrying about work on Sunday is the equivalent of a six-day work week! We need to reclaim our weekends!
Here are some strategies for taking back our weekends:
Take care of your household chores and obligations during the work week. I know many of us are tired after working our regular 9 to 5 (or whatever other heinous work schedule we have) and doing laundry or cleaning out the garage may not be something we’d want to do after work. But taking care of these tasks during the week will free up your weekends to do something you enjoy or just relax.
Take a break from tech on the weekends. Put the phone down! Stop checking your emails! Stay away from social media! There are plenty of benefits of taking a break from our screens including improved sleep and focus and reduced stress. It will also give you time and space to relax and really enjoy your weekend and do other things worthier of your time. Having a hard time disconnecting? Me too. I made a list of things I could be doing instead of scrolling Facebook, including reading, working on a hobby, going for a walk, etc. Whenever I feel the urge to scroll, I pull out my list and pick something else to do instead.
Set boundaries with work. Don’t answer calls from your colleagues or respond to work emails when you’re off the clock. Don’t even look at your work emails (see #2 above) on your days off. I once made the mistake of checking my work email on a Saturday: a colleague sent out a strongly worded email to everyone in the department. Even though it wasn’t directed at me, reading that email damped my mood and ruined my weekend. Don’t make the same mistake. You don’t need the anxiety! Besides, you shouldn’t be doing anything work related on your days off.
Plan either a fun or relaxing activity for one day or the entire weekend. I don’t know about you, but if I don’t plan an outing or activity in advance, I’m more likely to waste my day scrolling through social media. Whatever you plan for the weekend, make sure you pencil it in in your calendar. Do stay flexible and be prepared for last minute changes due to things like bad weather. Also, don’t make too many plans that could end up stressing you out. If planning activities begins to feel like an obligation, it's not going to be fun. It’s also perfectly fine to plan to do absolutely nothing instead if you’re intentional about it. Honestly there are some weekends I don’t feel like doing anything and would rather zone out instead.
Prepare for your Monday on a Friday. Whatever it is you do on Sunday to prepare for your Monday, do it on the Friday before instead. Whether it’s planning your outfit, creating a to do list, or taking care of other “worky” things, doing these things on Friday will free up your time and your brain on the weekend.
Don’t plan vital work things for Monday mornings. If possible, try to schedule important tasks and meetings for later in the day on Monday or for any other day of the work week. Stressing out about a client meeting you have first thing Monday morning is a surefire way of ruining your weekend.
Do something fun Friday after work. Whenever I do something fun on Friday after work, either going out to dinner or a movie does make my weekend feel just a little longer.
Obviously doing all these things might not be feasible depending on your situation but applying just one or two of these would make a huge difference in reclaiming your weekend.