The sleeves of the week have been rolled up with new slides turning in, ushering the weekend vibe with calmness and serenity, filtering the regular haste and stress attached to the weekdays.
Weekends are an important part of the week that we all usually look up to; the change in the habitual routines is one benefiting fact that we cannot overlook. Recycling the same activity every single day can become depressing and exhausting; don’t get me wrong, we develop some habits and routines to be continual practices that help us navigate through our daily activities.
At the initial stage, it is intriguing but as time rolls by, it becomes normal. Hence, there is the need to encrypt and indulge in certain routines that would help rebuild and serve your awareness; routines that help make impactful changes.
Note that people don’t decide their futures, they decide their habits and the habits decide their future. The activities that we choose to indulge in determine the level of productivity that will be attained in the upcoming week.
During the weekends, successful people take advantage of the calmness to recharge and unplug, allowing their brains to reboot after the frenetic work week. Shifting gears during the weekend is more like creating a fresh perspective to stretch your mind, accountability and access productivity.
The demanding race of survival can be consuming with fast-paced jobs, 24 hours day activity, reduced productivity even the act of being mindful and living with intention can dwindle if we do not make out time to refocus and indulge in something different.
Personally, for me productivity equates how long I sit behind my laptop, how many blog posts I create, pins I churn out regularly, how many Instagram post I create and I failed to understand that your creative and productive sense is influenced by the activities you indulge yourself in when you are away from your workspace. Those activities highly control the quality of your creativity or work.
Sadly, we can’t all rid ourselves free from the formulated regular routines rather; we can make use of the free time we have rolling in during the weekends. Not everyone is fortunate; you may be handling 2-3 jobs and your weekends are hanging in the chaos, you simply have to carve out time for this.
Rather than spending your weekends unproductive, the following are 10 things you can implement into your weekends that successful people do to create a balance between the work-life to vehemently increase their productivity level.
1. Unplug
The need to detach from the chaotic whirlwind cannot be overemphasized. During weekends successful people take out adequate time to unplug, disconnect from the struggle and measure their focus on something else.
It could be unplugging to create a personal mental ‘’ me time’’ or unplugging from the physical and mental stress to refresh your thoughts and momentum.
It can be overwhelming to create a proper and adequate time for you to disconnect especially when you have a family and several sources of income. Successful people endeavor that during the weekends they take a step back from the chaos and clean their minds.
Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes including you-Anne Lamott
In the process of unplugging they analyze;
- What energy are you bringing to the table?
- What vibes are you giving off?
- What challenges are you facing?
This exercise paves way for growth; it reduces mental and physical stress as well as to improve the relationship with yourself. Often, in the cluster of activities, we are too busy to create adequate time to love ourselves and there are times we fall short thereby sabotaging ourselves.
Self-sabotage looks like
- Procrastinating.
- Getting close to a goal and quitting.
- Being in relationships that are unhealthy.
- Not keeping your word to yourself.
- Setting unrealistic goals.
- Not trying.
- Carrying a negative narrative (story) about yourself and your abilities.
- Resisting change.
- Refusing to seek help.
- Suppressing emotions.
- Identifying yourself with negative talk.
- Shying away from comfort and the unknown.
Stress is a dominant factor woven into our lives these days that we cannot regularly perceive when we are compressed by the demands of survival and we then forget to live.
Rass Coff the co-founder of Hotwire.com opined that weekends are a great chance to reflect and be more introspective about bigger issues.
‘’My weekends are an important time to unplug from the day-to-day routine and get a chance to think more deeply about my company and industry’’ he says.
Unplugging helps create a remedy, a scale to balance the chaos and peace thereby creating space in our body and minds. In the period of unplugging meditation is an important equipment that is employed; meditation can be best described as the connection to your inner consciousness, it brings about peace, relief, and calmness.
2. Evaluate
Successful people take adequate time during their weekends to reinforce and reflect on the activities that occurred during the week which is a good habit to be emulated.
Life is a mixture of good and bad phases, and to successfully grow, we must explore our positive and negative traits by evaluating our real self from time to time. Evaluation creates adequate space for improvement. Without proper self-validation, failure is inevitable.
A lot of times we pay less attention to evaluation and reflection in our lives and end up at the verge of crises. Planning and evaluation, reasoning and establishing priorities are all more important than brilliance-either behind the wheel or at the drawing board.
In order words evaluation sets the foundation of improvement in anything you choose to do and this is a major secret of successful people. Evaluation doesn’t just happen, there are certain stages, steps and things that ought to be evaluated starting from:
- Your roles.
- Your habits.
- The way you think.
- Why do you think the way you do?
- Your words.
- Your actions.
- The way you talk to yourself.
- Your morals.
- Who you’re being influenced by?
The first step of evaluation is doing a quick check-in by asking questions:
- What worked well during the week?
- What failed?
- What went wrong?
- Are my actions bringing me closer to my goals?
- What should you do more and less of?
- What are you feeling?
- What are you noticing in your body?
- How have I been speaking to myself (critically or supportively)?
- Am I acting the way that resonates with who I am?
- Am I maintain and setting healthy boundaries?
- What do I need right now?
- Am I investing purposefully?
- How engaged am I with risks and challenges?
- What can I do to give myself what I need?
A successful journey isn’t pegged on your physical state alone but your mental stability as well. Successful people encrypt this into consideration and evaluate that aspect of their lives. I regularly share some weekend prompts on my Instagram to help you evaluate your week and plan for a productive week to get access to all the prompts simply click here
3. Wake Up Early
Successful people encrypt this formula into their everyday lives, they wake up early in other to slay and crush their goals.
Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up at 3:45 a.m, NextDesk director Dan Lee starts his day at 3:30 a.m., AOL CEO Tim Arm Strong start his day at 5:00 am, Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey wakes up before dawn, Ellevest CEO and co-founder Sallie Krawcheck wakes up at 4 am weekends inclusive.
Sleep is not a drawback to their successful people; they prioritize quality sleep over quantity sleep. Now you might be wondering how you can achieve quality night rest over a long night rest, wake up early in the morning and still slay your goals without fatigue. I have written an exclusive article to help you out with that, just click here to have access to it.
We often get this wrong that weekends are meant for a slump in our habits or routines. But waking up early on weekends increases the possibility of productivity and increases the level of self-discipline.
4. Self Care
Sometimes, you have to look at your life and realize that where you are right now is enough inclusive of transformation. You are enough; you’ve come so far to get here remember that. Take time to enjoy it because enjoying your life right now is how you elevate even higher.
Successful people during weekends take adequate time to invest into their self by taking care of their needs and this could be in form of going for a treat, a reward, and adding more cash to their fun bucket.
Self-care is showing up for yourself as you do for others. Self-care is honoring the boundaries you’ve set for yourself. Self-care is releasing the habits of overextending in ways that are unhealthy and draining. Being successful is not just about working round the clock but taking adequate time to tend to yourself.
Note that self-care is a lifestyle, it is not an occasional treat; self-care is not one thing, it’s a series of things. It doesn’t just happen on weekends alone but a regular act of investing in yourself, and it looks different for everyone; what works for others may not work for you.
Self-care doesn’t take any extra, it takes prioritizing your time; it is how we nurture ourselves. Self-care empowers you with more control over your mental health, it equates taking responsibility for your life, avoiding burnouts, developing an abundant positive mindset, it brings about the dissemination of positive energy.
Prioritizing self-care is a vital factor to marinating a sane body and mind capable of achieving your goals.
5. Plan For The Upcoming Week
A goal without a plan is just a wish! Successful people take out adequate time to critically plan and this usually occurs on Sunday evenings. Taking stock enables you to evaluate, focus, reflect and make progressive changes.
Adequate planning helps to achieve objectives, it increases efficiency, aids organization, facilitates proper coordination, gives right direction, encourages creativity, innovation and helps in decision making.
My weekly routine is very much still a work in progress, reasons so, it’s because I tweak it time to time and make changes.
When you plan it provides motivating incentives and when you critically plan your week, you are equipped with adequate control to take charge of how your week will unfold. There is no successful person that doesn’t plan. Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it.
At the beginning of every week, you want to make sure that you have scheduled all your appointments and dates with friends so you know how much time you have to work with.
Now to adequately plan a weekly schedule, the first I thing do is to:
- Rewrite all of my goals- This is a way to remind yourself of what you goals are, to refocus your brain on what is important because often when you get caught up in the daily grind, you kind of forget what matters and what you’re focusing on.
- Outline baby steps to take to get to those goals. This is extremely important, it enables you to maximize your time and know what you ought to be doing.
- Outline your to-do list.
- Outline your routines.
- Prep for your meals.
- Outline your strategy.
For you to start living a fulfilling and rewarding life you must plan your weeks and days around what is important and valued in your life. There is no excuse for not preparing for something that is inside your control, Successful people never fails in doing this.
6. Spend Quality Time With Family
No amount of money or success can take the place of time spent with your family; the togetherness is an important ingredient to family life. Successful people make the most of their weekends by spending quality time with their family. They spend some time on home improvement and their attitudes towards their families.
Family is not an important thing, it is ‘everything’, so they carve out adequate time from their clustered schedule to create a stronger bond and tie.
7. Declutter
Successful people take out time during the weekends to declutter. This may sound like a buzz because these people don’t have adequate time so why should they spend their free time attending to some laundry, vacuuming, dusting, etc
Decluttering isn’t based on physical organization alone, it includes cleaning and making adequate fixes in your life.
Usually, in the course of our journey, there are several obstructions that we experience that can put us on lockdown, resulting in limitations, insecurities, guilt, anger, pain, regrets or even physical clutter in your space.
While holding on to all these we are still trying to add more to your life, trying to add more value, excitement but the issue with this is that you cannot add more until you stop holding on to what you don’t need. An easy hypothesis but not an easy practice.
Successful people endeavor that they declutter their thoughts; this creates patience, they are embraced with more time to focus on what is important and valued in their lives. This could be letting go of the insecurity to invoke a new business plan or limitation to enact a new strategy.
When this occurs, they free themselves from stagnation, letting go of the anxiousness weighing and holding them back. Removing the clutter creates better opportunities; when you declutter mentally and physically, you usher in a self-esteem boost.
Successful people are humans, prone to mistakes and mental challenges and to keep fit, they endeavor they stay fit physically and mentally. To adequately declutter you to have to give yourself the permission to:
- Be authentic.
- Create your own story about yourself.
- Relax.
- Reset.
- Be afraid and do it anyway.
- Step back from people who deplete your energy.
- Enjoy what you’ve worked hard to create.
8. Vacation
Disconnecting and getting away from the regular atmosphere can bring about a productive purge, it reduces the damage of burnouts and allows you to develop a positive mindset. It can help you balance the overwhelmedness that is encroached in your work-life.
Taking time off can tune up a well-functioning brain so successful people go on short vacations to increase mental power and overall well-being.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer like many business leaders has a heavily packed schedule, often with 70 meetings scheduled in a week that takes up to 10 to 11 hours, she maintains balance by taking a week-long vacation every four months.
9. Recharge
During the typical week, there is so much swirling in the minds of successful beings, hence there is no adequate space for intense creativity to flourish but by resting and recharging they cut bonds of exhaustiveness, opening their channels to creativity.
Successful people know this, hence they take a firm opportunity by endeavoring to recharge during the weekends. Recharging could be in the form of meditation, reflecting and taking stock.
10. Network
Successful people always look for ways to make impactful connections either by indulging in beneficial activities or striking a connection with a person. Wherever they go and whatever activities they indulge in, they always try to connect with people. It could be at the park when going for a walk etc.
Remember, don’t be afraid to change so you can have success. Without proper application, growth and progress cannot be achieved, so make that valid step today! Do not claim to be so busy, so make out time for such improvement as a busy note.
As you make impactful changes:
- Create your to-do list and you can out it.
- There’s freedom in delegating.
- There is no reward for being the busiest person.
- Everything is not a priority, so stop prioritizing everything!
- There will always be things to do, but don’t try to do them all at the same time.
- Pace yourself!
- Make time for fun.
- Put yourself at the top of your to-do list!!!
Pin this for later
