The Weekend - Ally or Nemesis
During the long weekend, I had a couple of thoughts run through my head about weekends. Before I go into too much detail I want to emphasize that weekends are absolutely necessary. If you want to translate the word weekend into consecutive days off (regardless of the time during the week) that works as well. Regardless of when you take it, most of us absolutely need weekends. We can’t be working 7 days a week without some longer term impact.
That being said, there are some things that we need to be aware of about weekends. I want to share a couple of less positive things I realized about weekends and share a couple of ideas around mitigating them.
Destroyer of Routines
Weekends very much throw off my routine, and not just a little bit but a lot. Let me give just a couple of examples. First, my sleep schedule. During the week I know that my alarm is going to go off at the same time because work and school demand we get up and get going. That significantly influences what time I attempt to go to sleep. On the weekends, I don’t have the same alarm going off. As a result, I stay up later (sometimes much later) and find myself either getting up much later or reducing the amount of sleep I get. Neither of those things are positive.
The second routine it throws off is my eating habits. I’ll admit I can stand to lose some weight and I have goals to do so. What I find are that during the week when I’m in a routine with work and other activities and getting enough sleep, I’m much better about sticking with my diet. Friday night comes along and it is so easy to grab snacks while watching a moving or relaxing. And if I spend anytime over the weekend with close family, then the eating habits are out the window. By the time Sunday come around I know I need to get back into the habits but my brain always tells me I can get back into those habits easily on Monday (that’s not true). More about that below.
These are just a couple of examples of how my routine gets thrown off during the weekend and how that can negatively impact the weekend. Now let’s talk about how they impact the rest of the week.
Getting Back Into the Routine
Monday mornings are a struggle for me, especially if I really let my routine get out of whack over the weekend. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, I usually am doing mostly things that I choose and really enjoy doing over the weekend. Every once in a while I end up with a list of have to do’s that I don’t want to do, but that isn’t the norm. So as Sunday night rolls around or once the alarm goes off on Monday morning, it’s easy to find myself wishing I could go back to those things rather than my task list.
The second reason getting back on the routine can be difficult is because I look back over the weekend and realize I should have done better. It’s easy to get frustrated with myself because I decided to eat the whole bag of chocolate licorice (yes chocolate) or that I stayed up so late Sunday night trying to finish the book I knew I may not have time for during the week.
The third reason is the physical shift that has to take place. Both of my examples (diet and sleep) have a direct impact on mental and physical states. It is very difficult to throw those routines off entirely over 2-3 days and then expect to snap right back into them at 100% the next day. At least that doesn’t work well for me.
Suggestions
Weekend Routine
No matter what you do on the weekend, there will be times where you will struggle getting back into your “normal” routine. So recognize that it is going to happen and then identify how you personally are going to power through it. How to do this really will depend on you, how much time off you had and what you have on your plate after the time off. Here are a few things I am trying to do more consistently so make the transition a smoother experience.
First, try and incorporate a least some of your routine into your weekend. Let me continue with my examples of diet and sleep. First, I do set an alarm on the weekends. Very rarely do I just sleep until I wake up. Now, the weekend alarm is not nearly as early as the weekday one but depending on what I have planned for the day, I do set on. I also try and do some of the same things when I wake up on the weekend that I do during the week. Things like my personal study and exercise.
Having a weekend morning routine that is similar to my weekday one has helped me in a couple of ways. First, it does make the transition back to weekday mode easier. I’m doing the same basic things, just earlier. Second, because I have an alarm, I remind myself that the later I stay up, the less sleep I will get or the less I will accomplish over the weekend. It’s a small mental thing but helps me feel like my weekends are more than just sleeping away the time.
I also try to better pay attention my eating habits on the weekend. Just as with my sleep schedule, I’m not nearly as strict but I also try not to deviate too far. Because I know I’m going to be more relaxed in my habits on the weekend, it provides me with motivation to be pretty strict during the week. It’s easier to tell myself not to eat the chocolate licorice if I remind myself that I can have some Friday night while watching TV.
Monday Routine
The other thing to try is to have a different Monday routine. Maybe extremely important meetings and priority 1 deliverables are not the best thing to tackle first on a Monday. I know you can’t entirely avoid those things, but things like reserving time Monday morning to plan out your task and project list and to understand better what you will need to focus on during the week may help you to mentally and physically transition into your weekday mode. So think about the types of activities you should have first thing on a Monday and see if you can make that happen.
Having a Monday routine that sets you up for success the rest of the week is critical. Mostly it comes down to planning appropriately. It may also make sense to take some time Friday to make sure you know what is on your plate for Monday and reserve that transition time.
Summary
I love my weekends. I used to joke around that whoever said work 5 days and have 2 off each week was crazy. I still think that but what I am realizing is that there are things that we can do on the weekends that don’t take away from the down time, but also make the weekday time more productive.
For me it really is about keeping some sort of a routine that helps me transition back into workday mode easier. I have mentioned morning routines and diet on the weekends. Those both have a great impact on me. For you that may be different. So take a moment to look back at this last weekend. Identify things that went well and things you would like to do differently. Then try again next weekend. See if it makes. difference.