All of us have goals of things that we would like to accomplish outside of work. However, after working a long and stressful workweek, it can be hard to motivate ourselves to be productive during the weekend. We’ll often write ourselves long to-do lists, only to find ourselves relaxing on the couch reading endless online articles urging us to “click here to learn more.”
Nobody likes the feeling of waking up on Monday morning flooded with guilt for not accomplishing everything that you wanted to accomplish. To prevent this, here are some tips on how to find balance on the weekend and how to have fun while still being productive.
Many times, people neglect to complete the tasks on their to-do lists because it feels like all work and no play. Remember, you’re a person, not a robot. You can’t just endlessly do tasks with no breaks or opportunities to unwind. When writing your to-do list, schedule one activity that’s fun and another that’s relaxing. For example, your fun activity could involve taking your spouse out to a nice seafood restaurant. Your relaxing activity could involve just lying on the couch watching a movie. When your to-do list includes these enjoyable activities, it suddenly seems less scary and daunting to tackle.
Be Realistic
If you fill your to-do list with items that would literally take up every single waking hour of the weekend, then it’s no surprise that you end up just ignoring your list altogether. No one wants to feel like a workhorse during their time off from work. Instead, create goals that are extremely realistic. If you’ve been putting off cleaning up your garage, schedule the task in small increments instead of expecting yourself to clean the whole room in one day.
A good weekend is one that’s productive, but also enjoyable. You can’t expect to work all day every day and be happy. Instead, use your weekends to accomplish the things that you want to accomplish, but also to relax and enjoy yourself. Taking time to unwind will help you to feel more ready to take on what the workweek has to offer when you wake up on Monday morning.