Create your recipe for a good long weekend

Figure out what makes a long weekend satisfying, so you can repeat it in the future

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to create your recipe for a good long weekend.

(00:23):
When you know what makes time off work feel special
for you, you will be able to put these components
together easily in the future. So this episode is first
airing on Juneteenth, twenty twenty six in the United States,
our newest federal holiday, one celebrating Emancipation. Lots of communities

(00:47):
will have festivals and events, and lots of people will
have the day off work. This year, Juneteenth falls on
a Friday, which means that this is a long summer
weekend for many people. But even if you don't have
the day off, long weekends happen with some regularity, whether

(01:08):
for a Memorial Day or Labor Day, or if your
office here in the US will be closed for the
Friday before the Fourth of July weekend. Other countries obviously
have their own holidays. These little breaks in the schedule
can offer the opportunity for rejuvenation and adventures and meaning. However,

(01:28):
in many cases, like all units of time, long weekends
can be spent unintentionally. You may want to do nothing,
but it is impossible to do nothing. You will do something,
but it might not be nearly as rejuvenating as if
you had put some thought into it. Think lots of scrolling,

(01:51):
half hearted email checks, puttering around the house, making a
little progress on a project, but not enough to feel
accomplished kids various places. So, instead, going into any long weekend,
do a few things to make it more enjoyable, relaxing,
and memorable. Figure out what a good long weekend looks

(02:14):
like for you, and then you can repeat these components
in the future. For me, the recipe for a good
long weekend first starts with knowing it is coming up.
I hope you've got any office closures or holidays on
your calendar, and I hope you occasionally take PTO to
create a long weekend. Then for me, the recipe calls

(02:38):
for doing one anchor event each day. This is one
slightly more substantial event to make the day feel like
it happened. If you will be coordinating with anyone like
family members or friends, it's best to decide these anchor
events ahead of time. That way, you don't waste time
on your weekend. Decide what to do that can burn

(03:04):
up a lot of energy. You make arrangements and know
when you need to go so that you can organize
your days in an orderly fashion. Long weekends in particular
are great for doing items on your local bucket list.
If you haven't made such a list, now would be
a great time to do so. What are fun things

(03:26):
within an hour or so of your house? What looks appealing?
What do you keep saying you should try? You might
decide that plucking something from this list could go in
your recipe for a good long weekend. Of course, there
might already be events on your calendar. If so, is
there anything you could do to make them more fun

(03:49):
or more memorable. Maybe you are going to a soccer tournament,
but see that there is a county fair nearby that
you could visit. Maybe there is an ice cream par
or nearby that makes those best of lists. When you
plan ahead, you can add these adventures on. You might
also think about the mix of activities in general for

(04:12):
a weekend. I like the idea of doing something physical,
something social, and something spiritual. These are categories of activities
that people generally enjoy. See my do a by ride,
a cookout with friends, and go to worship services, or
volunteer somewhere. The spiritual category might also be addressed by

(04:37):
doing something or going somewhere that inspires awe. Climb a
mountain and look at the view, and that could do
it for you right there. You should also think ahead
about what your first choice activity is for any downtime.
I know that going into a long weekend, I like
to either have a puzzle going or be reading a

(04:59):
really good bo book. That way, when a spot of
time opens up, I don't wander around figuring out what
to do with it. If you think about this ahead
of time, you can stop by the library to get
a book you're excited about. But if you haven't thought
about it, you can get ebooks instantly for not that much,

(05:21):
or make sure you've got hobby supplies for whatever you'd
like to do. And finally, I think a recipe for
a good long weekend would include something light but fun
on the last evening. If you've got Friday off, then
we are talking Sunday evening. If you've got Monday off,
then of course we're talking Monday evening. After a long weekend,

(05:44):
it can be easy to feel a bit let down.
It's back to normal life. Those feelings can eat up
a big chunk of your last weekend day. But if
you plan something enjoyable for that evening, you will spend
your day looking forward to that rather than dwelling on
what is coming up afterwards. This can stretch out the fun.

(06:10):
So that's my recipe. An anchor event each day, ideally
doing something physical, something social, something spiritual. Figure out your
first choice for downtime, and plan something fun for the
last night. Your recipe might be similar, or it might
be a bit different. Maybe your first choice for long

(06:32):
weekends is always to take a trip somewhere not too far,
but far enough that it doesn't quite fit in a
normal weekend. But it helps to have a recipe because
when you do, you can just plug in the ingredients.
You aren't starting from scratch. You know what makes a
good long weekend, and so the planning is pretty easy.

(06:57):
You move on swiftly to the doing. In the meantime.
This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
the most of our time. Thanks for listening to before breakfast.

(07:20):
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com Before Breakfast
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

(07:42):
listen to your favorite shows.