Over the course of our lives, we only get a few thousand weekends. The most successful people know better than to squander them by laying around or scrubbing the floors.In her book, "What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend," time management expert Laura Vanderkam outlines how to make the most of this sacred time off from your harried workweeks.
She outlines how you can take control of your weekends by planning ahead, being selective with your time, and finally indulging what you love most.
-The first step to controlling your weekends is making conscious choices. -
It's so easy to plop down on the couch on a Friday night or Saturday morning and watch TV, but falling into these routines will suck away the few free hours you have. Instead of doing something by default, choose to decide how your time is spent.
Vanderkam writes, "In a world of constant connectivity, even loafing time must be consciously chosen, because time will be filled with something whether it’s consciously chosen or not — and not choosing means that the something that fills our hours will be less fulfilling than the something our remembering selves will likely wish we’d elected to do."
Source: What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend-Make appointments for yourself, even if it's only to read a book.-
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee says you need to have a plan for the weekend, setting specific hours or minutes aside for activities you want to do.* *Then you have to commit.
Huckabee advises: "If you know you want to read a book, then get the book out and have it set aside and make plans to read it. Say it's going to be at 1. When that starts, get on it. Don't wait until that afternoon, then think — could I read? Or listen to some music? Or take a walk? Then you'll sit about wasting an hour of what little time you have figuring out what to do with the rest of it."
You have to be disciplined and commit to the decisions you make.
Source: What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend-Planning actually makes weekends happier, and unlocks a key mechanism of joy. -
Vanderkam cites Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert's 2006 book, "Stumbling on Happiness." In it, Gilbert argues that "the greatest achievement of the human brain is its ability to imagine objects and episodes that do not exist in the realm of the real."
Gilbert is talking about anticipation. Anticipation accounts for a huge chunk of happiness, which comes from thinking about the events we plan. Vanderkam writes, "As you look forward to something good that is about to happen, you experience some of the same joy you would in the moment. The major difference is that the joy can last much longer."
Source: What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend
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