The Weekend Reset
How good was your weekend?
Finishing work on Friday can leave us satisfied but tired.
Frustrated with lack of progress, maybe.
Frazzled, with a sense of overwhelm.
Perhaps struggling with perspective, not being able to take the wins from the week.
This connects with my previous blog on resilience. After a busy week at the end of April 2021, I spent the weekend hiking and camping. While heading into work on Monday morning. I was amazed with the realisation that I had not really thought about work over the weekend.
Completely absorbed in 40km of hiking and walking over the Saturday and Sunday, collaborating with a group of 25 people. Sunday evening found me exhausted, Monday morning refreshed.
During March 2021, my watch set me a goal of 276km for the month. Initially, I didn’t think it possible, until the afternoon of March 30 and it was done.
Research in the US found that treating the weekend like a holiday meant that participants were significantly happier and seems to have shifted people’s mindset.
With thanks to the research and writings of Cassie Moglilner Holmes:
I woke everyone up with pancakes this morning. It’s something I like to do when we are on vacation. I found myself enjoying the morning more than usual, maybe it’s because I focused on staying in the moment.
And that is just it isn’t it?
Making the most of the moment. Not stressing and getting ahead of ourselves. Instead thinking about how we might enjoy this time more. On Friday evening having something of a celebration, enjoying a longer meal with a few drinks and deliberately having fun. Upon waking up on the weekend, making it a bit special for those closest to us and ourselves.
Clearly, we can’t ditch the housework, cleaning the cars and washing the clothes forever. The kids might have homework to attend to most weekends. But at least once a month…maybe we make sure that we really make it a full reset weekend.
