188. Time Management Series #9: Scheduling your weekends (Saturday and Sunday)

Last week we looked at the specific topic of performing office administrative tasks.

This week, we will look at scheduling a typical “weekend day”. It can be for both Saturdays or Sundays. My example would be for a Saturday, and I am using my own life as a sample. You can adjust according to what you need.

The weekend is mainly meant to be personal, so keep your schedules kind of selfish, protect what matters to you…. Mainly: yourself, your spouse, your children.

Some key areas to focus on:

1. Personal time: This section is for us to put in personal things you want to do without interruption by yourself, things like reading, taking a nap, having a quiet time, etc

2. Hobby time: These sections of my weekend is used to do what I enjoy doing in life that are not related to work, family, office, health, finances, etc directly. For me, over the past 5 to 6 years, it is playing board games. Now don’t get me wrong, it is not meant to be an isolating activity (I do and have played board games with my family, my church friends, and my colleagues). Just that at times, you just may want to have some “Me Time” and will thus spend some time alone, enjoying a cup of coffee and play a board game that was designed

3. Time with spouse: This time is more to build our relationship, sharing a good cup of coffee, having a chat about our kids, our dreams, playing a board game together, she playing the piano with me singing along…. The weekend time together is less formal, not talking about work stress, family budget, children’s studies, but more about building and strengthening our own relationship.

4. Time with children: This time is more for fun, so weekend time with kids is not homework or lessons or projects, but more entertainment: i.e. playing toys with my youngest one, playing board games with my older ones, going to the park, running around with all of them, cycling around the housing area with the older ones, you get what I mean…. A time to let our hair down and just enjoy the simple things in life

5. Time to fulfil a larger purpose: For me, I allocate time to my faith, in my case, church activities. If there are events or meetings or activities that involve my church, I tend to plan and carry them out on the weekends, where I will be less distracted from work J

6. Self-development: Like the above, this time is not trying to be filled developing myself for work. It is more like developing myself for enjoyment, learning a new skill, just for the sake of improvement, and not related to how I support my income. Some things include studying part time for a faith based course…. For e.g. I enrolled in a Masters of Christian Ministry from 2018-2021 at a local seminary and had plenty of fun going through it. Whilst tough, it provided a good balance to my mind and soul, not merely focusing on one part of my life when it comes to education…..

Keep your pens and highlighters, we will move on next week….. see you then!