Kathy Hamilton I love productive weekends. It’s amazing when you feel fresh and ready to attack my goals with a new determination. With this in mind, I thought it would be fun to put together ‘The Complete Guide to Having a Productive Weekend’. Partly as a template for myself and partly to help you get the most out of your weekend. Let’s get started!
So, what do I mean by productive? I am pretty sure that word means a lot of different things to different people. When I think of a productive weekend I picture time spent doing things I love, improving skills, getting life admin sorted out and generally become re-enthused with life. If that’s your idea of productivity, then I think we’ll get on!
With that in mind, ‘The Complete Guide to Having a Productive Weekend’ reflects that attitude. I am not going to be handing out tips for how to fill every second of your day with tasks. Instead, I’m hoping to provide a few ideas for how you can really spend some quality time on things you love.
Don’t sleep in
I know, I know. The prospect of sleeping in on the weekends is the thing that usually gets me through the 6.30 weekday alarm. But the key to having a productive weekend lies in starting the day out right. As much as I love a lie in, on weekends where I really want to get stuff done they’re just not worth it. You lose valuable daylight hours, time you could be out there being productive. If I could have told 17-year-old me I’d be offering you this advice, I’d have laughed. And yet, here we are! Don’t sleep in, get the most out of every second of your weekend instead.
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Prepare Breakfast in Advance
If you’re like me, your ideal Saturday morning starts with an amazing breakfast. But, unless you’re planning to splash out on Brunch (a valid plan!) breakfast, unfortunately, does not make itself! One of my favourite things to do on my way home from work on a Friday is get together the ingredients for a special Saturday breakfast. It’s usually a fry-up, or pancakes, but if I am feeling extra ‘good’ I will make a yoghurt and granola bowl. Whatever your breakfast is, it’s a perfect way to kick-start a productive weekend.
P.S. If you don’t sleep in you have more time to make an amazing breakfast…just saying.
Break the monotony
Most of us live our lives governed by a schedule of some kind. Whether that’s a 9 to 5, or not, for five days a week we all have some kind of routine. And that’s fine, routines help us. But one of the simplest ways to have a productive weekend is to break out of the cycle for a little while. In fact, science backs this up. The act of doing new things can help stimulate neurotrophins, and these little guys can help your brain thrive and give your productivity a boost. So, if you’ve been meaning to try out a new skill or shake things up at the gym the weekend is the perfect place to start. Which leads us perfectly into the next tip…
Get some exercise
Whatever way you do it, tip number four in the complete guide to having a productive weekend is to get some exercise. This used to be the very last thing I wanted to spend my weekend doing. Or anytime actually. But recently I’ve started to see the benefit even a little bit of exercise has on my mood. On weekends where I start my day with exercise I am always more enthused to get stuff done. I like when I can get to the gym early, before everyone else. And then I especially enjoy picking up a ‘treat yo’ self’ latte on the way home and undoing all my hard work! But exercise isn’t just about hitting the gym. Walking to places you need to go instead of getting the bus still counts too!
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Do something you love
Nothing makes me more motivated than the promise of doing something I love. For me that’s usually long, uninterrupted, reading. When I think of the perfect weekend there’s always some reading in there. There’s just nothing better than knowing I have time to sit for a couple of hours and read. Reading never feels like a waste of time to me. I learn so much from books that, really, I view it as one of the most productive things I do. But whatever it is you love, the complete guide to having a productive weekend wouldn’t be complete if you didn’t include a chunk of time to do it.
Set yourself one challenge
This can be anything and it’s probably best if you pick something you’ll enjoy! But I love to have a little challenge in my weekend. I love cooking, so usually I attempt to cook something more ambitious and time-consuming. Like a curry from scratch, or a new kind of cake. However, other times it’s something infinitely more practical. Like going through my wardrobe and filling a bag for the charity shop. Whatever the challenge is, it always makes me feel like I’m using my time productively and I enjoy the sense of achievement associated with tackling a new project.
Tackle your ‘Life Admin’
Life Admin is all that stuff that you would love to avoid doing. It can be anything: calling the bank, washing the dishes, ironing your clothes…you get the idea. Basically it’s anything that just needs to get done. The thing is, I have found that when I ignore these recurring ‘Life Admin’ tasks, in favour of only doing things I enjoy, they clutter up in the background. It’s nice to start the week with a clean slate and you can’t do that with piles of laundry sitting around (unfortunately). So, the final tip in ‘The Complete Guide to Having a Productive Weekend’ is to tackle your life admin. You’ll be glad you did.
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