Three tips to ensure you enjoy your whole weekend
It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m enjoying a great relaxing weekend. However, as the weekend wanes, a sense of gloom rises—“The Sunday Scaries” have arrived. As the weekend slips away, fears of starting another workweek start to take hold.
For years this scenario played itself out like clockwork, as I’m sure it has or is currently playing out for you. Thankfully, as I progressed in my career, I slowly gained the upper hand on those dreaded “scaries.”
This transition was so gradual, though, that I almost didn’t notice it. This got me thinking, what happened? The scaries didn’t “just” fade away. After some introspection, I came up with three things that directly impacted the quality of my weekend.
Stop ending the work week in a rush
As humans, we thrive on order and structure. Take a few moments as the week ends and set up your Monday for success. Keep a detailed project tracker to efficiently keep the plates spinning. Stop wasting mental energy keeping work tasks at the top of your mind over the weekend. Write them down, let them go, and pick them up on Monday morning.
By keeping work at work, you’ll free up mental space that you didn’t even realize was being held hostage over the weekend. Your newfound efficiency will also free your team up to focus on more innovation; leading to more invigorating projects that you are excited to take on.
Do not hold work too tight
Burnout is real. If your face is close to the furnace, it will get burned. Take time off. Delegate. Don’t treat work like an individual crusade. If you have teammates on the same project, leverage them—the purpose of a team is to do a job together. No one is meant to go it alone in life, so don’t take up residence on work island. You will flourish when you open up and let others into the work. It will feel uncomfortable at first because different people get things done in different ways. But in the end, this diversity of perspectives and workstyles will benefit everyone—the best practice you need might just be in the head of the person sitting next to you.
Ask for help
This is key! It doesn’t matter your role—we all need help.
If you are a manager, coach your team on how to navigate the work-life balance. Ask your team if The Sunday Scaries are chasing them down. Open dialogue is a wonderful thing, and sharing ideas and tactics is a boon for all involved—professionally and personally. Growth is often just a conversation away.
If you’re not a manager, reach out. Talk with your manager, reach out to family and friends—seek help and you will find it. Sometimes what’s going on in our lives is too much to take on alone, let others speak truth into your life and be set free.
Asking for help can be as simple as asking for another set of eyes on that presentation you’ve been working or as hard as mustering the courage to own a mistake so you can get the help to make it right; either way it is always worth it. One of the key reasons my career has been so fulfilling is because I’ve asked for help. Don’t rob yourself of the joy of collaboration. Victories shared are twice as sweet.
If you’re still with me, thank you. COVID-19 has made managing The Sunday Scaries harder than ever. To establish a beachhead and claim back our weekends (and sanity), we all need to leave work at work (even if your new office is your bedroom), let go of work and trust your team to help you get it done, and when necessary humbly and earnestly ask for help. We will get through this by being intentional and working hard together.
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