Successful Weekends

I just finished reading What the Most Successful People Do on Weekends by Laura Vanderkam. In the book, Ms Vanderkam states that weekends are important to our lives and that we need to apply the serious attention to them that we apply to our work lives. She uses a word that many people don't like in terms of free time: planning. Her general point is this: plan ahead of time what you want to do in your weekends that you find fulfilling. By having a plan, you can spend your weekend doing the things that you enjoy instead of thinking on Saturday morning what you want to do. The things you do might be as exciting as going to a concert or going to the beach, or it might be as pedestrian as taking an afternoon nap.

In reading her book, I could identify my own successful weekends and those less so. The successful weekends are the ones I feel good about and look back on and smile. These are also the ones that my coworkers comment on, “David, you do such interesting things”. My less successful weekends are the ones where I look back and ask, “what happened to my weekend?” As hard as we work in our jobs, it only makes sense that we make the most of the time that is ours.

My last weekend fell into the successful category. My wife and I went to dinner at a new restaurant on Friday night where we spent quality time talking. On Saturday morning, we volunteered at a rowing event where I was also competing. On Saturday evening, I played boardgames with friends while my wife read at home. On Sunday, we went to my parents' house to celebrate my mother's birthday. Looking back on it, it was an action packed weekend, but I felt good going into work the next week. We had specifically planned the Saturday and Sunday events, and while we didn't specifically plan the Friday night dinner, we often do dinner dates on Fridays.

You can purchase Laura Vanderkam's eBook version of What the Most Successful People Do on Weekends on Amazon for $2.99. It is a good, quick read. Our weekends are precious. What are you doing this weekend?