Just because you had a weekend in which you didn’t go to work doesn’t mean you had a good weekend. In fact, my guess is that your weekend away from the office was probably “bad-good”.

I can imagine what you’re thinking. “Say what? How does not working on a weekend mean I did my weekend wrong?”

Well, it all depends on what you do over those weekend days that makes the difference. Because a good weekend is driven by the quality of what you do–and it’s not what you think. 

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Think about it. You just spent the last five days trudging into the office, battling phone calls, and trying to clean out your email. You may have worked late nights, confronted testy personalities, and spent far too many hours bottled up in stuffy conference rooms sitting through long-winded, boring meetings.

And then the moment arrives. Late Friday afternoon–when you shut down your laptop and say “Sayonara” to your boss, your desk, and your work–and decide that all you want to do is binge watch “Game of Thrones”, or do some online shopping, or party it up with friends or family. You know. The whole I’m-going-to-decompress thing. I’m going to do absolutely nothing because I just spent the past week doing way too much.

Problem is, this kind of indulgent me-time, the idea of lazing around and doing little (if at all), may not be good for you. Though immediately gratifying, casual leisure pursuits like these are short lived. Hence, the bad-good weekend.

“White-collar workers are logging longer hours than a generation ago, and Americans excel at the losing game of competitive busyness. In this context, a weekend without email and spreadsheets might seem like a victory in and of itself—and it is, kind of. But if you don’t feel rejuvenated and keen to face Monday after two work-free days, there might be a reason: You’re doing your weekend wrong.”

Turns out that casual leisure, like the drinking, online shopping, and binge-watching I mentioned above, are short-lived. They provide only short-term hedonistic pleasure. But serious pleasure is much more beneficial for you. In fact, it’s the meaningful and challenging activities that will make you grow as a person and provide some of the best weekends you’ll ever have in your life. Plus, you get the added benefit of meaningful memories to tack onto those amazing weekends.

Want to know how to experience your best, most fulfilling weekends ever? Read this article I found on Quartz Media the other day. Very inspiring! Now, go forth and enjoy weekends that will bring out the best in you!

Namaste. 🙂

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