by Kristine Coblitz
You know how the old song goes: "Everybody's working for the weekend...."
When I worked outside the home in an office, I would count the days until Friday. You could usually pinpoint my mood depending on what day it was:
On Monday, I'd feel depressed, wondering where the weekend had gone.
On Tuesday, I'd feel a bit more stabilized, set into the routine of the work week.
On Wednesday, I'd feel as if the week would never end.
On Thursday, I'd start to feel energized as I was officially "over the hump."
On Friday...well, Fridays were party days. My coworkers and I would order lunch out. We'd dress a bit more casually, and our attitudes were a lot more positive.
Two days off! The possibilities of how to fill those weekend hours seemed endless. Usually they were spent performing household chores, such as laundry and grocery shopping, but as long as I wasn't working, I was happy.
Now that I work from home, things have changed. I no longer wait for Friday to arrive. Heck, half the time, I'm lucky I even know what day of the week it is. After a while, they all tend to blend together. I don't work 9 to 5 anymore. I frequently work in the evenings. Weekends? Yeah, I work during those sometimes, too, especially if I'm on deadline. But I won't think twice about running to the grocery store on a Monday afternoon or to the post office on a Wednesday morning. Getting used to a flexible working schedule was one of my biggest hurdles when I made the switch to working at home.
I've had to set time boundaries for myself. I try to limit my weekends to purely fiction writing (unless, as I mentioned above, I'm on an editing deadline, and then all bets are off). My main goal, however, is to relax and devote my time on weekends as much as possible to my family and my home. I only check my e-mail twice a day instead of every hour. I watch movies. I read books. I clean the kitchen. You get the idea.
I think it's important for writers to schedule downtime. We all need to recharge those batteries. What are your favorite relaxing activities?
6 comments:
Yesterday was so gorgeous out that I took a walk in the middle of the afternoon. Decadent. My usual favorite way to relax is snuggled in my recliner beneath an afghan and a cat with a good book, but lately I've been so exhausted that no matter how good the book, I end up falling asleep. Maybe my favorite relaxing activity is sleep.
Relaxing activities?
What the heck are those?????
I'm off today and I have no plans. That is relaxing to me. I might go out and browse a few stores, and probably try to get a few of those last 100 pages written. No pressure, though!
I seem to be really tired lately. Maybe it's the work transition I'm going through. I got a couple hours comp. time off on Tuesday afternoon and took a long nap.
Oh yes, I read some, too.
Sleep is my favorite activity, too. There's nothing better than snuggling up under a blanket and snoozing away a few hours.
Lately, I've been trying to catch re-runs of Forensic Files and other such shows (only an hour at a time, though). I enjoy the content and feel as though it's, well...research (in a sense). It's a true blow-off, I mean bonus, if I allow myself NOT to read during commercials.
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