So you’ve had a relaxing weekend.
You sat around all weekend and watched TV and movies or just lay in bed and didn’t move. You justify it to yourself by saying you needed a break after working so hard during the week days.
It’s like people use the weekend as a recharge and week days are like a totally different side to their life that they push through.
To be honest I do like Friday for the pure fact that I don’t have to go into the office the next day, but it’s not like a dread Mondays. It’s just another day to make a difference and another day to work towards your goals.
In fact I probably enjoy week days just as much as the weekend. The week days challenge me, there are problems to solve and I enjoy solving them. There is a degree of time management and I try to utilize it all to the best of my ability.
As for the weekend, this one in particular it was the first weekend for a while that I didn’t have anything on. Instead of being productive and working on my own projects I sat on the couch and watched the cricket for hours on Saturday and Sunday.
Now tomorrow when I go into work and my colleagues ask me how my weekend was I will sell it off as a nice relaxing weekend where I just sat back on watched the cricket, because that reality is accepted. Everyone thinks the weekend is a good time to recharge.
The truth about my weekend; It was frustrating, I spent the whole time thinking about what I needed to do and instead of getting it done I sat down and watched the cricket. There was nothing relaxing about it, even though I wasn’t exerting myself physically I was in mental mind games with myself.
I have read several studies about how exercise helps people deal with depression. Make no mistake I would definitely not say I was depressed at all. I did feel like shit, unmotivated to do anything and regretting my inaction. But I can see if I broke out of that mind set and was active and worked on the things I wanted to work on I would be feeling a lot better about myself, and my weekend.
So how do I turn around that lack of motivation and turn that inactivity in proactivity.
To be honest I would prefer to be busy than be doing nothing. Even at work, some people think it’s great when they have nothing to do and sit at a desk and are getting paid for it. Not me, if I was sitting there doing nothing I would drive myself crazy.
Typically before I go to sleep I will set out everything that I want to get done on the following day. I find it a good way to stay on track and avoid getting side tracked. This weekend just passed I didn’t do it, and I think it was partly responsible for my unproductive weekend.
I want to trial a bit of a different approach this week. I want to try and schedule out my whole week with what needs to be done and instead of creating a new list every night I want to review what I had planned for the next day and re-evaluate from there.
If there is anything I have learned over this year it is that productivity doesn’t just happen, it’s not some magic moment where you decide ok I am going to get this done today, while for some aspects of your life this must be true but from my own experience that is not how it happens long term. Productivity is planned, you have it worked out, how to best utilize your time and you stick to it.
You need to be flexible as well because not everything goes to plan. Don’t beat yourself up if you miss one thing on your list of things you had planned to do, but also don’t become complacent letting it happen regularly.
Planning out my week has its advantages in that I can take a bigger picture look at the week rather than just concentrating on what I want to get done the next day. But just concentrating on what needs to be done the next day I was often skipping out on the fitness aspects of my routine and not having enough time to really balance my schedule.
Taking a weekly approach helps me to balance my week more evenly so I am not just concentrating on one aspect which lately seems to be career. I have really been neglecting social, fitness and adventure. After playing basketball tonight I was all too aware that I have been neglecting the fitness aspect!
So here’s to a more productive week, a more balanced week and more enjoyable week and most importantly… no regret.
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