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VL
Posted by

Victoria Lagodinsky

April 4, 2014

tips to make the most of your time off
Everyone is counting down to the weekend, but do you feel refreshed enough on Monday morning? Michael and Jessica Hinz show you how to make the most of your weekend.

‘For anyone who works from Monday to Friday, weekends seem to take forever to arrive. Then from Friday night, time flies and before you know where you are it’s Monday morning again. If you try to pack in all the things that you haven’t had time to do during the week, there’s a danger of those precious two days bursting at the seams.

You’ll probably want to see friends or relatives. If you have children, you’ll also want to spend some quality time with them (especially if they’re usually asleep by the time you get home from work during the week), as well as with your partner. You may have leisure interests to pursue. Then there are regular chores, such as cleaning,laundry and ironing, and perhaps some home maintenance projects…

However, if your weekend becomes ruled by never-ending to-do lists, you may find yourself going to work on Monday morning more tired than you were on Friday evening, and so your break won’t have carried out its function of refreshing you for the week ahead.

 

Learn to make the most of your weekend

Schedule into your weekend at least one or two periods of slower time, giving you 10 to 15 per cent more time than you think you’ll actually need. If you finish the activity sooner, so much the better: you’ll have time for a coffee or a chat. If you’re rushing somewhere immediately after an early breakfast, make sure that you get some relaxation time later in the day – perhaps idly reading your paper after lunch instead of in the morning.

Mark the weekend out as special and do things that are a little unusual. For example, you could take the opportunity to explore some of the areas of your neighborhood that you don’t know well. Many of us have tourist or leisure sites on our doorsteps that we assume are of more interest to visitors than to locals – but why should this be so?

Weekends are for chores and for parenting, as well as for leisure. Efficiently attending to tasks will give you a satisfying sense of jobs well done and make you feel that you deserve any idle time or treats afterwards – which perhaps is a good reason for scheduling the tasks for Saturday mornings. To be efficient, prepare for your chores during the working week by doing any necessary shopping in advance. A big shopping expedition is a feature of many people’s weekends, but with a little ingenuity (including use of the Internet) you can avoid this.

Saturday night is a prime time for giving a dinner party, and many hosts find that they spend the whole day preparing: devising the menu, tidying up, shopping and cooking. With a little forethought some of these tasks can be done in advance, leaving you with more energy to enjoy the party. Many choose to be ambitious with their cooking, not because they enjoy it, but because they believe that they have to make a special effort for friends. That’s fine, but make sure that you don’t overstretch yourself and compromise your own enjoyment of the evening.

No matter how well you balance your weekend, there may be times when you suffer from “Sunday evening syndrome” – characterized by anxieties about the week ahead and difficulty getting to sleep. Often we go to bed on Sundays earlier than on Fridays and Saturdays, but it can be tricky to reset our body clock to working time. On Sunday evening your priority should be to unwind. Do something gently enjoyable. Don’t go to bed until you feel tired: prepare yourself for sleep by doing something that relaxes you.’

 

Learn to Balance Your Life equips you with everything you need to find fulfilment in all areas of your life: identify your priorities and allow enough time for them; maximise your finances; use your work and leisure time enjoyably and profitably; and make your home a calming yet energising place to live.

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