How To Accomplish More On The Weekends – Essential Efficiency Hacks
How many times have you celebrated the end of the workday on Friday, welcomed in the weekend, and thought about how much you are going to accomplish in those couple of days?
It can seem like a huge amount of time laid out before you on Friday evening, then before you know it, you’re heading to bed on Sunday night preparing to start the workweek and realizing you got only a fraction accomplished in your time off.
If you are looking to break the endless cycle and start being more productive and efficient on the weekends, it’s going to take some work on your part. It comes down to time management and planning. Although this doesn’t sound glamorous, it doesn’t have to be difficult either.
Let’s take a look at some essential efficiency hacks you can use on your weekends that will allow you to accomplish a whole lot more.
Keep a Log of Your Weekend Activities:
Before you make any type of sweeping changes, it’s a good idea to get a sense of how you spend your time on the weekend. It’s hard to know what to change if you don’t have a sense of what you are doing with your time. You can do this by keeping a log of your weekend activities for a few weeks to start to paint a picture.
When creating your log, make sure to jot down what the activity is, and how long you spent on it. You can use an online hour difference calculator to quickly figure out the time you spent on something. It figures out the hours between a start and end time.
Once you have enough data, or enough weekends you have logged your time for, you will likely start to see some trends and patterns emerge. These can be quite interesting and shed light on where you can make changes.
Start Each Weekend with a To-Do List:
Now that you have an idea of how long you spend on various errands, chores, and activities, you can better create a to-do list that is realistic. That isn’t to say that you can’t cut down the amount of time spent on various activities, it just means your to-do list won’t end up being anything more than wishful thinking.
Focus on One Item at a Time:
Despite the fact that you have multiple things on your to-do list, it’s important to focus on one item at a time. One item should be finished before moving on to the next. This ensures you aren’t left with a handful of partially completed tasks and projects at the end of the weekend. Each time you finish something, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment, which then sparks motivation.
Wake Up Earlier:
Sure, it’s the weekend, and most people enjoy sleeping in, but the fact is that by sleeping in, you are using up time that could be spent in a more productive manner. It really comes down to how much you want to accomplish, and how important that sleep is to you. Aiming for a healthy bedtime each night can cut down on the desire to sleep in and solve the problem right there.
Ask for Help with Chores and Errands:
If you live with others such as a significant other and/or kids, then there is nothing wrong with asking for help. Things like the household chores can and should be divided up between all household members so that one person isn’t stuck with everything. The more help you get, the faster the chores will get done, which means more free time for you.
For many families, creating a weekend chore list can prove to be useful as everyone sees in advance what they are responsible for and can plan their time wisely.
There’s Nothing Wrong with Making Time for Fun:
The final tip is to give yourself permission to have fun and also enjoy the weekend.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting downtime, time to just relax, and time to hang out with friends. This is why your to-do list has to be realistic and reflect what you will truly be able to tackle in a weekend.
By using each of these tips, you’ll be able to achieve that sense of accomplishment that your weekends have been productive and that you made the absolute best use of your time. That will instantly put in you a positive mindset heading into the workweek.
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