How to Set Up For The Best Weekend

Greetings, earthlings.

It’s 22:00 AM and I have only just finished up sending out emails, trying to make sense of files and praying nothing (new) goes wrong between now and tomorrow morning when I check my email again. It’s one of those weeks, you know?

And when I have one of those weeks, I need my weekend to recharge. Inspired on the Buzzfeed article about how to set up for your best week I shared via Merel a while back, I wanted to write how to set up for the best weekend. Or at least how I set up for mine, especially in times of high pressure at work.

THURSDAY OR FRIDAY 

(depending on how your schedule looks and how much time you have):

• Make sure your house is clean and neat. Don’t underestimate the effect of your environment.

• Change the sheets for bonus points. Few things more blissful than fresh bedsheets.

• Do groceries. I recommend the basics (so your staple foods) as well as some extra. Get some super healthy stuff, as well as your favorite not-so-healthy indulgences.

• When you finish work on Friday, if you don’t do this already, clean your desk and make a to do list of everything you can start with on Monday. You can also make a list of stress triggers, potential issues and problems. Next, you leave all of it, right on your desk, to be dealt with next Monday.

• Don’t plan much this weekend. This way you can really do what you’re in the mood for. I function best on an empty schedule in the weekend.

• BUT. Do plan the following three things.

1. An activity that helps you relax and gives you energy (yoga, meditation, exercise, floating session, massage, go out for coffee, afternoon of reading, etc)
2. Something really fun to do (dinner date at a nice restaurant, going to see a movie that’s been on your list, shopping, going out for gin&tonics, going to a museum, you get the idea)
3. A date with a person you really love. Can be your mom, your BFF, your boyfriend, your (favorite) kid, whoever makes you happy when you see them. (1 and 2 can be combined with the third, obviously)

• Do something fun on Friday. Something that makes you feel like “Yes, my weekend has begun!” (I find champagne does the trick quite nicely)

SATURDAY/SUNDAY

• Don’t set an alarm clock, so you can catch up on your sleep.

• Or do, if you want to use as much o your weekend as possible. Upto you.

• Really enjoy your mornings on the weekend, preferably with a ritual. During the week we often have to get up so early that we can’t really savour the mornings, so this is a good time for that.

• My ritual is currently a yoga clas, and then having toast and coffee for breakfast with Vincent.

• Now, do whatever you like. This is your weekend. Have at it. Give yourself what you want and what you need these two days, so you can be a better coworker, friend, mother, whatever during the week.

• Get dressed up at least one of the two days. Trust me, it will help you feel good. Looking cute is a mood-booster. But you’re cute, so you’d know that.

And that’s it, guys. Give it a try. Studies would show that the best weekend helps you to then have the most productive week ever.

Okay. I’m going to bed and cuddle my pillow until my alarm brutally brings me into a new day. Later.