The weekend

Posted on March 6, 2022March 6, 2022 by David Hopkins

The weekend.

What is the weekend, to you? Is it all about family, chores, rest, recuperation, keeping busy, sport, or hobbies? Is it time to catch up on sleep or work emails? Do you make the most of the weekend and are ready to attach the week ahead, or does the lack of structure and anxiety of Monday morning pressing down on you?

Since Covid hit two years ago, weekends have been very different experiences for me and my family – we’ve stayed home a lot more than normal, have rarely seen friends and family (even with restrictions lifted), barely go out to events or to dine. Well, Covid restrictions have relaxed to the level that they’re not what’s stopping us from doing anything now, but it’s our own reluctance to do it.

It’s not only Covid though, we’ve now got the added complications of the rising cost of fuel, food, and costs at home. Energy prices are going through the roof, the Ukraine war is starting to affect us too. It’s looking quite likely that, even if we can go out, we can’t afford to!

Do you, like me, feel the shoulders tense up from about mid-Sunday afternoon as you try and finish something you started (or wanted to start) over the weekend? The ever-present feeling of the Monday morning to come?

How do you counter that feeling? What technique do you have to make the weekend last as long as the days you have, without it creeping in and taking over? For those of us still working remotely and from home, the need to distance ourselves from the working emotions at times when we need to be a family member, not a work colleague, is still really important.

How do you do it? Got any tips or tricks to share? For me, I pack the work equipment away and don’t touch it until Monday. My work-space becomes my home-space. I also do my best to not talk about work at home and at the weekends too, this helps to put space between my work-thoughts and family-thoughts. It doesn’t always work, but it’s something I have control over.

Oh yes, and stay off social media. It won’t help, but it will help you waste away the last few precious hours of the weekend or, at worst, get you all worked up and stressed before the new week even starts.