The best bit is that you can do it in your PJs
Working at the weekend is often a necessity. When I had my first ever job, which was in retail, I merchandised dummies and demoed pushchairs on both a Saturday and a Sunday. Give me a buggy now and within a couple of minutes I’ll work out how to put it up and down within about a minute. It’s a party trick that was engrained in me in the early days of my working career. Life and soul of the party me! Bar work called for shifts that left me so tired that I’d sleep in so late on a Sunday that my housemates thought that I’d died. One time I woke up to them prodding me and staring at me wide-eyed with one of them ready to dial 999.
Now I work for myself and have the ability to create my own schedule, putting in the hours at the weekend is something that I try to avoid and for the most part I do. It’s quality time that I like to spend with Mark, my friends and family and watching Spice World: The Movie. However if a week has been particularly busy, or peppered with travel, then there’s sometimes some catching up to do and it just makes sense to chip away at it a little come the days of rest. I’m sure there are plenty of others in the same boat, so whilst I don’t endorse working at the weekend as some kind of ‘busy badge of honour‘ if you can avoid it, here’s how to schedule it in without it feeling like you’ve just skipped on to Monday…
Get comfortable. Mate – you’re working at the weekend and if you want to whip out your laptop and work from bed then so be it. Get comfortable, snuggle up with a blanket, make sure you have some snacks ready to go. If you don’t want to change out your pyjamas then leave ’em on and treat yourself to a nice bath later instead. I find that the key to being relaxed for me is to move all my work stuff over to the sofa area because it gives me space to write at the coffee table if I need to and spread out a bit. Working out of a setting that I don’t usually use allows me to see it as a treat and differentiates it from my usual weekday set-up which makes replying to emails at the weekend feel a tad nicer.
Make a list. Jobs have a never-ending workload. So to stop my tasks going on for the rest of eternity and swallowing up the whole two days I like to set myself a stopping point. By making a list you have the satisfaction of putting a tick next to things when they’re complete (which for an organisational freak like me is just golden) and your brain will feel satisfied when you get to the end of that list that work can be packed up for the weekend and now it’s time for the fun stuff. Just make sure that it’s realistic, you don’t want to overload yourself and therefore never reach the end which always makes me feel like a turd because, hey – it’s the freakin’ weekend.
Be snappy. Part of me thinks, ‘It’s the weekend and if you want to schedule one tweet and then take a 30 minute break, then be my guest’, however I’m leaning towards to other end that preaches that it’s better just to suck it up, get your head down and power through your to-do list. If you’re super snappy and rapidly ticking off items then the quicker you’ll be back in bed getting croissant crumbs between the sheets. The good thing is that emails won’t be coming through and social media won’t be as entertaining on a Saturday morning because everyone is either sleeping off the previous night’s antics or having the mother of all lie-ins. So make the most of it and kick procrastination to the curb whilst the distraction levels are low.
Still have an evening (or a morning/afternoon) Now this depends on when you find yourself to be the most productive. For me it’s the morning (*she types at 8.24am from the desk she’s been sitting at since 7.30am*), so I’d rather get up early, bash out a post and have my evenings free for catching up on Great British Bake-Off and ogling at my new silk shirt crush, Noel Fielding. If you’re more of a night owl then feel free to spend the day brunching and having a jolly, then curling up with your laptop at midnight. Just make sure that part of your day still feels ‘weekend-y’ to you. Or else your precious weekend will begin to slip away and you’ll start to feel like it’s *shudder* – Monday…
Give yourself a pat on the back. Whether you’re working at the weekend because it’s your contracted shift or you’re working at the weekend because you’ve spent too much time that week fanning around, give yourself a pat on the back, because we don’t give ourselves that enough. Get your head down, put your time in and then take a long ol’ nap in the afternoon if you feel like that’s what your body needs. Listen to it and nourish it with whatever it’s calling out for; be it a croissant or a super stretchy workout. Whether you’re hitting hard on the shop floor or at your desk, make sure you’re balancing it out by hitting it hard on the self care front too. Speaking of which that was the topic of this month’s newsletter – you seen it? Whatever your plans this weekend, I hope you all have a good one. And if you want a really good one, I’ll leave the link to Spice World: The Movie, right here…
Photos by Lauren Shipley
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