Your weekends need to feel different from your weekdays, which happens if you rotate in different activities and hobbies you don’t have time to do during the week, Laura Vanderkam shares in her book What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast.
For examples, she notes that celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson plays soccer, television correspondent Bill McGowan chops firewood, and architect Rafael Vinoly plays piano.
Doing a different kind of labor allows your mind and body to recover from the typical stresses you encounter during the week. You can also save your workout for Saturday and Sunday—find out why science says it’s OK to only exercise on weekends.
I – Word Understanding
Correspondent – a person who writes news or commentary for a publication (tv, newspaper, etc.)
II – Have Your Say
1. How do you spend your weekends?
2. For a subtle and restorative weekends, the author reveals what successful people do:
a. Plan it out – savor the joy of anticipating something fun
b. Do something fun on Sunday night – forget about Sunday night blues
c. Maximize your weekend mornings
d. Create traditions – special activities to do on most weekends
e. Schedule nap time – lets your body rest and recuperate
f. Compress chores – set a time to finish chores and move on to funtime
g. Cut down on tech – and create space for other things in life
In today’s distracted world, no weekend plan likely means you’ll end up mindlessly watching television or browsing the internet. “Failing to think through what you wish to do on the weekend may make you succumb to the ‘I’m tired’ excuse that keeps you locked in the house,” she writes. You don’t need a micromanaged, minute-by-minute playbook, but sketch in three to five “anchor” activities. Planning also lets you savor the joy of anticipating something fun; psychology research shows we’re often happier anticipating an event, like a vacation, than we are during or after it.
