There’s nothing quite like the feeling as that clock on the wall slowly ticks towards 5 pm on a Friday. With freedom merely minutes away, you begin to get that excited feeling in your stomach as your mind wanders through the many possibilities for the weekend ahead.
After a hard-working week, we look forward to the weekend like a mini-holiday, a much-needed break from work, deadlines and that impossible boss.
Yet while we often imagine peaceful weekends where we manage to fully rest and recover, while also doing a wide variety of exciting activities with our friends before you know it, it’s Sunday evening again and that all too familiar end of the weekend blues begins to set it.
This might be down to a genuine dread about going back to work, and in this case, it’s probably recommended that you look for another job, but all too often, that Sunday evening feeling is because we haven’t necessarily done what we needed or wanted to do over the weekend.
Sleep too much or too little
We’ll begin with one of the most obvious. If you have to wake up at 6 am and commute to work Monday to Friday, it’s perfectly natural to want to sleep a little later than usual. An extra hour, or two, or three won’t do any harm, but if you find yourself sleeping through most of the weekend, it might be a case of your body telling your something.
While it’s considered fairly normal for teenagers to sleep for 15 hours at the weekend, as we get older our bodies usually require less sleep. If you’re sleeping late into both Saturday and Sunday, it could be a sign of exhaustion or other health issues. Sleeping for extended lengths can also be tricky psychologically because it means you have fewer waking hours to do what you want.
On the other side of the coin are those who attack the weekend with unbridled enthusiasm and sleep for far less than is required. The reasons for your extended period of wakefulness might be incredibly exciting, but not getting enough sleep will likely lead to a low mood come Sunday evening that will probably continue into Monday.
Excessive alcohol
The British are known around the world for their impressive (maybe) ability to put away huge quantities of alcohol. When the weekend arrives it can be incredibly tempting to go all in because it’s the only time that you can, but what comes next can be frequently unpleasant.
Waking up at 4 am on Monday with the alcohol shivers is a terrible way to start the week. Even if you stay completely sober on Sunday, if you’ve had a big Friday and Saturday night, there’s almost certainly enough alcohol going through your bloodstream to affect you well into the next week.
Binge drinking at the weekend has in many ways become a cultural staple, but it’s not something that should be taken lightheartedly and there are several signs that your weekend drinking could be a problem.
Not prepping for the week ahead
Nobody likes thinking about next week while it’s still the weekend, but equally so, nobody likes feeling out of their depth as soon as they sit down at work on Monday morning.
You don’t need to spend half your Sunday planning ahead, but quick scheduling of things that you need to do will provide that sense of calm going into the new week. To get the most out of this, why not do it on Friday afternoon just be you leave. Let’s be honest, the hour between 4 pm and 5 pm on a Friday is normally pretty slow, so instead of just blindly scrolling through social media, spend 15 minutes prepping for the following week.
Trying to do too much
It can be tempting to approach every weekend with a frantic social thirst that sees you make plans for every single minute. Maybe the museum here, the cinema there and dinner with friends after. It’s vitally important that you get this kind of time because this is what life’s all about but it can be all too easy to get carried away.
Ideally, on a Sunday evening, you want to be able to sit back and know that you have relaxed, achieved what you wanted and caught up with loved ones all in a wonderful mix of joy and happiness. Unfortunately, humans can be rather bad at organising time and before you know it, it’s Sunday night again and you feel like you haven’t stopped to enjoy the weekend.
It’s much better to do less but with better quality than dragging yourself around simply for the sake of it. Balancing everything in life is no mean feat, but getting it right at the weekend is particularly important.
Not doing what you love/need to do to relax
Our final point is probably one of the most important. Is there anything worse than a weekend, or consecutive weekends, where you feel you haven’t been able to do what you really want? This often seems to be accompanied by a feeling of not being able to do what you normally do to relax, which should be the absolute cornerstone of any weekend.
Sometimes we have busy weekends when we need to get on with other things that might not be high on a chosen to-do list, but too many of them will leave you frustrated and can even lead to depression.
Try to think a little selfishly sometimes - even for just a few hours. What is it you really want to do on this beautiful Saturday? Go out for a bike ride? Take some photos in the park? Or simply sit out in the garden with a good book?
Our weekends should be looked upon as a precious time when we can do whatever we wish without the normal constraints of our work schedule. If you never get to do what you want, Monday morning will always be a struggle.
