How The Most Successful People Use Their Weekends Better

As work weeks get longer each year and free time seems to slip away quicker than ever, it's essential to make the most of time we actually have at least some control over: the weekend.

Time management expert Laura Vanderkam recently came out with a new e-Book, What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend.

The book outlines how readers can take control of weekends by planning ahead, and making their time off count.

The first step to controlling your weekends is making conscious choices.

It's so easy to plop down on the couch on a Friday night or Saturday morning and watch T.V., but falling into default activities like this will suck away the few free hours you have available during the week. Instead of doing something by default, choose to decide how your time is spent. 

Vanderkam writes, "In a world of constant connectivity, even loafing time must be consciously chosen, because time will be filled with something whether it’s consciously chosen or not—and not choosing means that the something that fills our hours will be less fulfilling than the something our remembering selves will likely wish we’d elected to do."

Source: What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend

Make appointments for yourself, even if it's only to read a book.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee says you need to have a plan for the weekend, part of which should be setting specific hours or minutes aside for activities you want to do. Then you have to commit. 

He advises, "If you know you want to read a book, then get the book out and have it set aside and make plans to read it. Say it's going to be at one. When that starts, get on it. Don't wait until that afternoon, then think—could I read? Or listen to some music? Or take a walk? Then you'll sit about wasting an hour of what little time you have figuring out what to do with the rest of it."

You have to be disciplined and commit to the decisions you make. 

Source: What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend

Planning actually makes weekends happier, and unlocks a key mechanism of joy.

Vanderkam cites Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert's 2006 book, Stumbling on Happiness. Gilbert argues, "The greatest achievement of the human brain is its ability to imagine objects and episodes that do not exist in the realm of the real." 

Gilbert is talking about anticipation. Anticipation accounts for a huge chunk of happiness, which that comes from thinking about the events we plan. Vanderkam writes, "As you look forward to something good that is about to happen, you experience some of the same joy you would in the moment. The major difference is that the joy can last much longer."

Source: What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend

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