How to extend your weekend

Reading this article, Squeeze an Extra Hour Out of Your Busy Day – Time management – Lifehacker, I thought: that’s all fine and good, but what I want is less busy time, not more. I want more weekend. Likely you do too.

One simple way of doing this is to actively plan your Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays. For Thursdays, try and arrange for a relaxing or enjoyable activity to do Thursday evening. It could be going for coffee or drinks, or seeing a show, going book or window shopping, or going out for a nice dinner. Anything that makes Thursday night more special than Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night. If I do that, even though I have to work on Friday, I  feel like the weekend has already started.

As for Sunday and Monday, it is a similar idea. Even if you find your weekend busy, try to schedule the busyness and chores before Sunday evening and try and  make Sunday night enjoyable, even if it is taking extra time to relax. So many people I see — via email — that they have already started their work week on Sunday night! They not finished working on Saturday morning and they start working on Sunday evening! If they are lavishly rewarded for this, then fine. Otherwise, they need to better manage their time Monday to Friday so that that doesn’t happen. And they certainly need to manage their time so that they enjoy Sunday evening.

Finally, try to extend your weekend into Monday as much as you can. If you can have a relaxing breakfast, or a special lunch, or just meeting a friend for coffee on Monday, you will have eased into the week nicely and the next thing you know, you are already launched into the work week.

For the rest of the week, work hard. But when it comes time to relax and play, play hard too.

It’s your life: make the most of it. Extending your weekend is one way to do that.