Have you ever turned around on Monday and wondered just where the weekend went? There’s a secret to making your weekends feel longer, you know? It requires a plan and filling up your hours. Contrary to popular belief, actually doing nothing isn’t really good for you. It doesn’t encourage rest, it doesn’t allow you to regroup and make a better plan for the week, all it does is make the weekend go faster.

Who wants that? Not us. You can make your weekend as productive as you want, and have time to give space to all the things you want to do, try, and see, and still feel like you have a long weekend, instead of one that goes by in the blink of an eye.

STEP ONE

DON’T DO NOTHING

Yes, the weekend is for rest, of course, but doing nothing but chilling in front of the TV is not good for you. Your weekend will pass by in a flash and eventually all your weekends will blur into one season of whatever’s new on Netflix. You do need a plan, even just a loose one. You don’t want to take the fun out of the weekend by overplanning, but you do want to know at least loosely what you want to spend your time on.

Decide what your most important tasks to tick off are, do you want to get ahead with your hobbies? Try something new? Or do you have self-care and wellness goals for the weekend? Do you have time for a massage, a facial, time with your friends and family? Schedule it in and you’ll feel like you’ve had a thousand years for a weekend and not just a few days.

STEP TWO

STOP OVERPLANNING

If you’re a type A person, overplanning is easy. Your friends decide they’d love to come over on Saturday afternoon and all of a sudden it becomes a party scheduled in fifteen-minute increments with a theme and a shopping list. This is not how you’re going to enjoy the weekend, and in fact, when you spend so much time stressing about something it’ll fly by. The best thing to do, in fact, would be to let it go. Plan well by planning a little.

Use the three to five rule, three to five things per day should be planned in order to make the most of your time. You can use the Getting Stuff Done planner to write down your three to five goals, and keep yourself from overplanning. 

STEP THREE

TRY SOMETHING THAT SCARES YOU

The more things you do that you don’t feel like doing, the more the world will open up to you. Take that adventurous friend up on their offer to go rock climbing, enroll in an acting course or sing on stage, do something that terrifies you just to prove to yourself that you can do it.

If you try to do one thing that you don’t want to do at least once a month, you’ll suddenly stop fearing other things. You’ll have this feeling that, if you could do that, you can do anything. Push yourself out of your comfort zone as often as possible, and the results will shock you.

STEP FOUR

STOP THE SUNDAY BLUES

You love your job, right? Most career girls do. But the Sunday blues are a real thing, even if you love your job. When you start to think about what’s looming on Monday, whether it’s a performance review, an important meeting, or just your commute, you can feel a bit weary.

Don’t give in to that feeling. Book something in the evening to extend your Sunday feeling for as long as you can. Some families choose to meet up for dinner on Sunday, other people book a massage or give themselves something to look forward to. It’s important that you acknowledge your feelings and remind yourself that every Monday so far, you’ve survived, and thrived – and every Monday that’s coming, no matter what’s in store for you, you’ll smash it.

STEP FIVE

GIVE YOURSELF SOME RITUALS

Create rituals that you swear by. Every weekend you might have a bath, or play tennis, walk the dog for an hour, have a roast dinner. These are your rituals, the things that help you gather some perspective, give your brain a rest from the week and get your head in the game. These are the things that encourage productivity and help you perform to the best of your abilities without trying.

They also help to increase that feeling of having more hours in the day and giving you a sense of perspective about your weekend. You’ll look back on it with a feeling that you’ve filled it with SO MUCH, you can’t believe it was just two days.

GOOD THINGS

…come to those who sign up for our emails

Let's block ads! (Why?)