How to be Happy During the Weekends

You may be asking, why am I writing about something that people already automatically feel happy about? It's a no brainer that by default, people will be happy during the weekends. Why the need to write about it?

Do you feel exhausted on Sunday evenings? Do you feel like your whole weekend was wasted sleeping in late and not doing much? Then you're not using your weekends wisely, and your weekends are probably not as happy as they could be.

Here are some simple steps that may be hard to follow, but do them well, and you'll find that your Mondays will suddenly not seem that blue anymore.

1) First things first, what to do: Spend your weekend doing 'pointless' things that aren't pointless.

There's a quote on my WhatsApp status that I have been using for years, and I still somewhat live by it:

It is meant to be satire, but isn't that the basis of most people's opinions about weekends? 

About two months ago, I bought a book titled What the Most Successful People do on the Weekend by Laura Vanderkam. It was a short read - and needless to say, most points were already things we know - but it reminded me yet again how important the weekends (or rather, our days off) are, and how we can really get down to enjoying them. 

To me, living a completely pointless weekend is not about doing things that are completely pointless - its about doing 'pointless' things that gives us satisfaction. 

Take for example: Tom spends his weekend at home watching dramas. Dick spends his weekend playing online video games. Harry spends his weekend going rock climbing. 

All three of them did 'pointless' things; none of those things could have in anyway added value to them, at least not economically. However, come Monday, who do you think felt more refreshed? Tom and Dick, who spent no effort at all planning their weekends? Or Harry, who spent the effort planning for the rock climbing trip (booking the rock climbing studio, preparing the equipment, driving out) and then enjoying the process of it?

As for me, my weekend pointless activities include: Sewing, reading, and binging on dramas (oops, I guess some bad habits are hard to die). 

2) Earn more time by getting out of bed early.

Ideally, you might want to try getting out of bed about the same time you do on weekdays, but unless you are super disciplined, you and I both know that's close to impossible to happen. Still, many of us have the habit of sleeping in till like, noon, because "IT'S THE WEEKEND!".

Try waking up earlier than your usual weekend (and don't snooze!), say, 9am, and go for a nice breakfast (or maybe even cook your own!) before you start your day. You'll suddenly find that you have more time on your hands, which translates to a longer weekend, and you'll wonder why you ever done this sooner. 

3) Now that you've got more time on your hands, it's time to plan your weekend ahead.

It's easy to not plan. How often have we told ourselves: "It's the weekend, let it happen. When the time comes, I'll just do what I want to do when I want to do it," but when the end of the weekend comes, we never actually got around to doing anything?

Part of the joy is from anticipation. When you plan a weekend event, you start to anticipate it. It will make your work week more meaningful, as you know you are looking forward to something at the weekend. When it finally comes, the satisfaction is great.

I'm not saying you should plan every single piece of your time of your entire weekend, but make a rough guide. For me, I usually choose two things to do per day: Two activities on Saturday, and two activities on Sunday. That way I get to still do other stuff in between, and even if I don't manage to do all activities (say, I only managed to do two out of the four activities planned), I still feel happy and fulfilled. 

4) Stick to your plan.

I'll admit that sometimes I tend to fall into the temptation of doing away with the plan and resort to lazing around at home. Why would I want to make the effort getting dressed and taking the time to travel out to do whatever it was I had planned, when I could easily spend my weekend napping and watching drama sitcoms? When times like this do happen (and it will), ask yourself, when Sunday evening looms around the corner, would you want to look back on your weekend and tell yourself "Ah... I'm exhausted but boy, did I enjoy myself this weekend!" or will you say "Man, all I did was mope around sleeping and scrolling through Facebook"?

5) The dreaded Sunday evening!

I used to dread Sunday evenings, especially when I felt like I haven't done anything all weekend and it's just gone. I would feel lousy and would start binge watching dramas till late at night, and guess what? It just made me feel worse on Monday morning. 

There isn't a secret formula of what to do and what not to do on a Sunday evening, but generally you want to relax and unwind. Take your mind off work!! Think back to how you spent your weekends, and the highlights of it. Enjoy a nice dinner to finish off the awesome weekend you had, and maybe do something relaxing and mindless like reading a book or even doing the laundry. 

Tell yourself that it was a great rejuvenating weekend and now you're refreshed and ready to face Monday again, because you're just that awesome. 

FAQ

Q: What if I really feel like having a lazy weekend? What if I actually wanted to spend my weekend sleeping in, binging on dramas in my sweatpants, and eating delivery pizzas? 

A: Well, isn't that a plan! If you feel like you need a break from those "fruitful weekends", do it! Just be sure not to fall into the same routine every single weekend, and then you'll be stuck in the same rut and going back to feeling lousy on Sunday nights and Monday mornings. 

Q: Seems like the weekend is dedicated to putting in the "life" in "work-life balance". What if I have to work on weekends? Some of us bring our work laptops home because we have work/projects to attend to and deadlines to meet. 

A: Plan for it! Just as how you would plan your weekend activities, make your work one of them. Plan a time for it, then when the time comes, sit down and focus on it. Don't procrastinate, don't put it off. Once you're done, you'll be off to your next activity and you would have already offloaded work off your chest. You'll tell yourself "Phew, I've done it and my work is done for the weekend!" Best part of planning work into your weekend is, you get your work done and you won't have work bugging you in the back of your head for the entire week. 

Q: Help, I tried planning my weekends but I never had the discipline to follow through! I'm now spending my weekend feeling miserable and lousy. 

A: Don't be too hard on yourself, everyone fails once in a while. Don't stress yourself and don't blame yourself for it, or you'll just be spending your weekend moping around in self-loathe. Just take it easy and try again next weekend. 

Q: I've got a question and it's not listed here. 

A: This isn't a guide book. The weekend is your own to spend, just remember to make it count.