Time management expert Laura Vanderkam’s follow-up book
to What the Most
Successful People Do Before Breakfast, aptly titled What the Most
Successful People Do on the Weekend, is crammed with advice from
successful entrepreneurs and scientific studies to help you never waste another
weekend again. As Vanderkam points out, all too often “our precious weekends
are eaten up by unproductive work or leisure that fails to energize us, leaving
us dragging Monday morning and asking where the weekend went.”
The key: making weekend plans in advance. “These days
disappear into chores, errands, inefficient email checking, unconsciously
chosen television marathons, or a death march of children’s activities that
suck the energy out of chauffeuring adults,” Vanderkam says.
Her book includes lists of the weekend activities that
make people happiest, why it’s important to unplug for at least a little while,
and why Sunday nights may be the most important time of your entire weekend.
Below is an excerpt from her book on six ways to make
your weekend successful.
6 Secrets of Successful Weekends
Here are a few more tips to remember as you’re making
your plans:
1. Dig deep.
Maybe there are activities you haven’t done since childhood that could
become a regular part of your weekends. One reader tells me that she and her
husband decided to sign up for piano lessons on Saturday mornings. Now they and
their teenage son all have lessons back to back. It’s easier to nudge a kid to
practice when mom and dad are doing it, too. Sometimes we get so concerned
about scheduling our kids’ lives that we forget to schedule our own.
2. Use your mornings.
Weekend mornings tend to be wasted time, but they’re
great for personal pursuits. If you’re training for a marathon, it’s less
disruptive for your family if you get up early to do your four-hour run than if
you try to do it in the middle of the day. To get up early, you’ll probably
have to avoid staying up late the night before, but this is a good idea in
general.
3. Create traditions.
Happy families often have some special weekend activity
that everyone loves but no one has to plan each time. Maybe it’s pancakes on
Saturday mornings or a family walk to worship services, but whatever it is,
make a ritual of it. These habits are what become memories—and comforting
rituals boost happiness.
4. Schedule downtime.
Jess Lahey, a New Hampshire-based teacher and writer, has
official weekend naptime in her house that takes place each afternoon between
one and three. Her kids—who are pre-teens, not toddlers who actually need to
nap—know it’s coming, and they save up screen time for it. They play games
together, watch a movie, or read. Everyone turns their phones off, and Lahey
and her husband close the door to the upstairs, read for a bit, “then dive in
for what always proves to be (amazing) sleep. That deep sleep that leaves you a
little disoriented when you wake up,” she says. “Once I’ve figured out where I
am and what day it is, I leap out of bed recharged and head out to weed the
garden or get down to the business of making dinner.”
5. Make time to explore.
A run, walk, or bike ride can turn into an adventure—with
plenty of opportunities for that spontaneity people seem to think planning
quashes—if you choose the right neighborhood. Use weekends to stretch your
routine a bit.
6. Plan something fun for Sunday nights.
This idea may be the most important tip in this book.
Even if you love your job, it’s easy to feel a bit of trepidation on Sundays
about the stresses waiting for you on Monday morning. And if you don’t like
your job, Sunday trepidation can become a full-on case of the Sunday-night
blues as time slides, inexorably, into the next day. You wonder what you’re
doing with your life. You wonder if any of it is worthwhile.
If you’re asking such existential questions, it may be
time to shake things up. But in the meantime, or even if you just feel weary
when you think of your commute, you can combat the Sunday-night blues by
scheduling something fun for Sunday evening. This extends the weekend and keeps
you focused on the fun to come, rather than on Monday morning.
Caitlin Andrews, a librarian, calls it a “necessity” to
end Sunday night on a high note. Her extended family gets together for dinner
almost every Sunday, alternating houses. “The host house cooks the main meal
but the others bring something to add—an appetizer, a bottle of wine, a side
dish, or dessert. It’s a little stressful when I have to cook and clean for
people coming over,” she reports, “but I don’t spend too much time on it and my
husband helps. Plus, we always end up with leftovers for the rest of the week
when we cook. It’s just a couple of hours—everyone comes over about five thirty
and we’re home by eight or nine.” That’s plenty of time to plan and decompress
before bed, and she looks forward to this tradition all weekend. “It takes my
mind off any Sunday-night blues that might be coming on.”
Aliza Rosen, a reality TV producer who’s dreamed up
series like Farm Kingsand Curvy Girls, does Vinyasa (“hot”) yoga
at 6 p.m. on Sundays. “It’s a great way for me to sweat out the toxins of the
week and center myself for Monday,” she says. “I reset myself.” She admits that
for her, the yoga is not particularly spiritual. “I’m making a mental list,”
she says. But it gives her something to anticipate as she’s sliding toward each
Monday firefight. That may be the same thing that Ina Garten, the chef
otherwise known as the Barefoot Contessa, was thinking when she created her 6
p.m. Sunday ritual of getting a massage.
According to the June 29, 2012 “My Sunday Routine” New York Times profile of Garten,
this twenty-seven-year tradition stemmed from a 1985 realization that “I was
working really hard, and one day I told myself, ‘I’m not having enough fun.’ So
I did two things: I got myself a red Mustang convertible and started having massages.
I don’t have the Mustang anymore, but I still have the same masseuse!”
One equally great way to end the weekend is to volunteer.
Nothing will take your mind off any problems associated with your decent-paying
and steady job like serving people who aren’t so fortunate. Savvy volunteer
coordinators know that it’s easier for most people to make Sunday night
volunteering a part of their lives than other times. Jacob Lee runs the Orange
County (Calif.) chapter of the Fellowship of Orthodox Christians United to
Serve (FOCUS). Every Sunday night, his volunteers serve a meal, restaurant
style, to homeless families living in an area motel. Sunday is “generally kind
of a dead night,” Lee says. “On Saturday night people have things to do. On
Sunday…?” Miraculously, everyone is free. So you get a much more diverse group
of volunteers than the retirees and homemakers who might volunteer during the
week. After the volunteers serve the meal, as the evening starts to wind down,
everyone sits together, telling their life stories and “learning about why
people end up where they end up,” says Lee. It’s a way to connect with humanity
before everyone goes their separate ways for the week.
Click here: Link
Shared by LY
No comments:
Post a Comment