The weekend is supposed to provide us with a well-earned rest from the stressful, non-stop grind of the weekday activities. However, for some, the weekend may also provide a bit of time to catch up on things you weren’t able to fit into the week. For those of you in the latter category, here are some tips on how to spend your Saturday doing more than watching television and eating nachos in your living room.
Productive Ways to Spend a Saturday
Make a to-do list of things you would like to get done over the weekend
Write down a structured to-do list in order to have a clear vision of what needs to be done and how much time you can realistically set aside to devote to each task.
Make the goals as specific as possible.
For example, you may write down “buy a basket to tidy up kids toys in the living room” or “clean out the gutters before watching the game” instead of just “clean the house”. The more specific the goal, the easier it is to visualize yourself doing it in real time.
Get Started
This may seem like an obvious rule to getting things done on a Saturday, but the faster you get going, the faster you’ll be done. Do not procrastinate. Doing things will lead to more doing things. Sooner or later you will be definitely impressed with the productivity results.
Procrastination will lead to more procrastination.
Give yourself a roundabout timeframe of what you would like to get done and how long it should take. Also, calculate when you would like to get started on the task. Then improvise as necessary.
Give yourself a break in between tasks
Maybe you have four things you would like to do this upcoming Saturday. Plan out in what order you would like to get each done. More importantly, however, schedule a nice break activity in between tasks. This will keep you from getting bogged down with chores all day, making you less likely to quit.
Exercise
A quick fifteen-minute exercise session to start the day will get your blood moving. Start out with some pushups or ab crunches to help get you out of that weekend laziness funk. Once you start moving it will be a lot easier to continue on that path and start getting things done.
Get good sleep on Friday night
Getting wasted Friday night is not going to help you be more productive come Saturday morning.
Neither is staying up until 3am just because you don’t have to work.
Get a good night’s rest on Friday, and it will be much easier to get out of bed come Saturday morning.
Review your list
Keep yourself accountable by reviewing all the tasks you have completed. Maybe you will do better next weekend. Maybe there are some finishing touches you would like to complete on some of the things you accomplished. Maybe some things will have to wait until next Saturday. Whatever it is, look at what you have accomplished and congratulate yourself on a job well done.
Be consistent
The more you become used to getting up and checking things off of your list on Saturday, the easier it will be to do the same on future Saturdays. Make the whole day an automated routine and soon you might even look forward to your productive weekend list busting activities (or at least not think twice about it).