Work Life Balance: Advice for Working on the Weekends
Why do we work weekends? American society is almost trained to work weekends out of necessity to play catch up or get that project done for the client on Monday morning. I would love to hear from readers here in America and around the globe how they feel about working weekends.
According to wikipedia, work life balance is defined as “a person’s control over the conditions in their workplace. It is accomplished when an individual feels dually satisfied about their personal life and their paid occupation. It mutually benefits the individual, business and society when a person’s personal life is balanced with his or her own job.”
But what about when you have to work at home on the weekends? I write this entry because I have had an incredibly busy and productive week yet I still have things due early next that I know Monday and Tuesday will not be enough time.
I think we all need to have a weekend routine that allows for the occasional working spike otherwise the days will all start blurring together. So my request to all the readers as we roll into Friday evening that you take one day to do nothing but spend time with family, friends or just do nothing. There is beauty in doing nothing but that is another post.
I will post a Monday “did I follow my advice” entry. I would like all the readers to find this post on Monday and tell me if you were able to do this.
Have a great weekend.
I’m only doing work during the weekend when I know that I have an occasion or something not work-related to attend to during the weekdays. For 9 to 5′ers I believe it’s stupid to do weekend work. But if you are self-employed, it’s something that is negotiable.
I agree that there needs to be some sort of balance when it comes to working on the weekends — and it comes after spending many of my weekends drenched in projects that needed completing.
But, truth be told, productivity increased once working over the weekends were nixed. Like you said, there will be times when the work overflows, and in those cases, I’d say that you should stick only to those tasks which are imperative.
Over the weekend, even if I need to get some work done, I make it a point not to check e-mail, surf the net, or anything else that could distract me into doing more than is necessary.
~ Teli