Why wait for the weekend, when you can create the same kind of vibes on a weekday.
We have all been there, that satisfying sense of relief as Friday rolls around and you are left with two fabulous days of no work. Well, for the Monday to Friday workers that is.
Of course, many people have that same sense of relief when Monday rolls around, especially if you work in hospitality or retail and had to work all weekend. In which case your weekend might be a Monday and a Tuesday instead.
Either way, before those two days of work roll around, there is no doubt you would be feeling excited to know you have two days to do what you want.
Of course, in the freelance world (my world), often those types of weekends are difficult to manifest, as more often than not, urgent work from a client will come in, or perhaps I have a deadline I don’t think I can reach in time so need to clock up some time on the weekend to finish some work off for a client.
It’s because of this, I decided to no longer wait for the weekend to catch up with friends, watch a movie, go out to lunch with my partner, or do some retail therapy when the shopping centres are nice and quiet.
Essentially, I learned that there is no sense waiting for the weekend, in the event something comes up and I lose the only days I had scheduled to sleep in, do yoga, watch TV, bum in my tracks, maybe sleep some more. Or hang out with friends and family.
Now, I spend my days working with a schedule which will allow me to have more downtime to relax, but enough time to get work done – any day of the week.
And yes, I understand for anyone with a full-time job from Monday to Friday, or Wednesday through to Sunday, it may be a little more difficult to achieve. However, unless you are working in a prison camp, I am pretty confident you have time up your sleeve where you can create a little weekend magic for yourself throughout the week, so you’re not missing out on the good stuff in life.
Things like self-care, a catch up with a friend for lunch, or switching off digital media to hang with your pet or read a book, as just as important as sleeping, eating and taking care of family.
Most of the time, the main answer you’ll be met with internally or even by other people, is: ‘I can’t because I’m too tired’ or ‘I can’t, because I don’t have time.’ The problems with those scenarios is that those issues will never go away.
The sad reality is, we are all tired and we are all pressed for time, as there are never enough hours in the day, and we simply just don’t get enough sleep.
And as important as it is to take care of yourself first, it’s also important to help your loved ones through the road of accepting these facts, and then learning that they really should just take that hour for lunch with you for some time out. Because, it’s only an hour after all.
So, whether you’ll be doing alone, or with company, here’s how to have some weekend fun on a weekday:
- Invite a friends(s) over for a movie night. Make it early though, in case people have to get up early for work. Or if someone is a shift worker, maybe suggest a movie day, where you just hang out for an hour chilling with a good movie before they go to work.
- Plan a food fiesta. Every one has to eat right? Set up an easy lunch or dinner at home and invite either friends or family, where you get to have a few hours (might be less depending on work hours) to sit around and have a nice meal together, before they all disperse to wherever they have to go.
- For some you time, why not check out if there are any arts or craft workshops you can join in. they often run both day and night, so you can easily find something to suit your schedule. It’s a great way to meet new people, get creative and get out of the house for a breather. Don’t worry the vacuuming can wait, and so can those dirty dishes.
- Or, if you prefer to stay home and get crafty, go online and check out some tutorials which are all online and you can set yourself at home and do it in the comfort of your pjs, without having to talk to anyone. If that’s more your thing.
- Gardening. Okay this may sound more like a chore to some. But if you do like gardening, it can be rather therapeutic to tend to the garden. And why wait for a weekend to do it. If you do it now, then it frees up the weekend for more leisure time. There’s nothing more gratifying than planting some fresh flowers in the garden.
- Call a friend who has a full time job and find out when their lunch break is, or at least tell them they need to have a lunch break, and then either take lunch to them or take them to a nearby cafe and have lunch with them. They will appreciate the break from work, love a good catch up with you, and you get to spend some more time with them, in the event your weekend is filled with family events.
These simple and effective ways of achieving weekend goals throughout the week with not only bring you some happiness, they will give a little happiness to those around you too.