May 24, 2019 • 6 mins
Time off is too precious to be totally leisurely about leisure.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about some strategies you can use to
create your best long weekend ever. This episode is first
airing at the start of Memorial Day weekend in the US,
(00:24):
which is widely viewed as the official start of summer.
Monday is a holiday, and many people have a half
day planned on Friday as well. If you're listening to
this and you've got a trip somewhere exciting, great, But
if you don't, or you're curious about how to savor
your time in general during future long weekends, here are
some ideas that have been helpful for me and might
be for you too. First, I like to make a
(00:47):
mental map of the weekend. Back when I was dealing
with kidnap times, I began thinking of a weekend as
consisting of five spots Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday post nap,
Sunday morning, and Sunday post nap. Now that I'm beyond
the nap stage, this is evolved to Friday night, Saturday day,
(01:07):
Saturday night, Sunday day, and Sunday night. For a long
weekend simply add Monday day and Monday night to the mix.
So for a long weekend, we likely have seven chunks
of time to assign, and yes, hanging out at the
house is completely fine to assign for some of them,
but you probably don't want to do that for all seven.
It's good to have a balance and to treat some
(01:29):
of this extended time off as a little special. That
brings us to the question of what makes a good weekend.
We all have our own special recipes. Personally, I like
to do a date night, eating out somewhere, fancy a
long run, singing with my choir at church, and then
some sort of family adventure like going to a botanical
garden or the zoo or a bike ride. This mix
(01:52):
of four things doesn't happen every weekend, but if a
weekend does have those four components, I know I'll hit
the work week thinking wow, that was pretty good. There's
actually some research about what activities make people happiest. For
one study, researchers had a slew of people record how
they were feeling as they went about their days at
certain times when they were asked to report on how
(02:14):
they were feeling. Now, you may not be surprised to
learn that people were in the best moods during what
the researchers called intimate activities, though we can all ponder
the image of these people pausing in the middle of
such things while they recorded their feelings for research purposes.
In any case, a few other activities consistently hit the
top of the scale. People loved socializing, believe it or not.
(02:36):
They liked exercising too. They felt quite good while engaged
in spiritual activities. So for any weekend, long or regular,
you could think about these major categories. I recommend doing
something social, something physical, and something spiritual. Social is pretty straightforward,
a barbecue with friends at your house maybe, or brunch
(02:57):
with extended family. Physical is straightforward were two, though a
long weekend allows for slightly more adventurous ideas. Instead of
just doing a thirty minute run around your neighborhood, you
could go for a four hour hike in a nearby
state park, or rent canoes and paddle down a local
river with your family. I interpret the category of spiritual
activities broadly. It could certainly mean going to worship services,
(03:21):
but for people who aren't part of an organized religious community,
it could mean anything that elevates your soul. You could
volunteer somewhere and thus be part of something bigger than yourself.
You could do a longer meditation session, read devotional or
inspirational literature, are go taking something awe inspiring, like shooting
stars while you're camped far from city lights. So map
(03:44):
out what you and the people you spend weekends with
would like to do in these three categories. Figure out
which of the seven long weekend slots you're can assign
them to. Then, and this is just as important. We
need to minimize the time spent on half two dous
and these are just part of life. Even in the
best weekend ever, you might still need to run to
(04:05):
an a t M or put gas in your car.
In a previous episode of Before Breakfast, I recommended doing
chores and errands during the work week in order to
maximize family and leisure time on the weekend. But if
that's not happening and the grocery, shopping and laundry need
to get done, I recommend setting a specific window for
these things. If you walk around the whole weekend thinking
(04:27):
I need to clean my house, you'll feel miserable. You'll
do inefficient bits here and there, so the housework bleeds
into everything or else. You'll constantly feel guilty about not
doing it. But if you assign yourself a time, say
Sunday from three to five thirty p m. Before your
volunteer session at the food bank, then you can stop
thinking about it. If you find yourself looking at your
(04:49):
pile of dirty clothes on Saturday morning, you can tell
yourself there's a time for laundry, and now is not
that time, so you're free to relax and read a book,
or t your kids to the park or whatever you've
decided to do. So that's my advice for planning a
great long weekend. I'd love to hear about your recipe
for making the most of your time off. As always,
(05:12):
you can email me at Before Breakfast Podcast at I
heart media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening and here's to making the most of
our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
(05:35):
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number four then Breakfast
p o D. You can also shoot me an email
at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com
that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
(06:02):
Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. H
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about some strategies you can use to
create your best long weekend ever. This episode is first
airing at the start of Memorial Day weekend in the US,
(00:24):
which is widely viewed as the official start of summer.
Monday is a holiday, and many people have a half
day planned on Friday as well. If you're listening to
this and you've got a trip somewhere exciting, great, But
if you don't, or you're curious about how to savor
your time in general during future long weekends, here are
some ideas that have been helpful for me and might
be for you too. First, I like to make a
(00:47):
mental map of the weekend. Back when I was dealing
with kidnap times, I began thinking of a weekend as
consisting of five spots Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday post nap,
Sunday morning, and Sunday post nap. Now that I'm beyond
the nap stage, this is evolved to Friday night, Saturday day,
(01:07):
Saturday night, Sunday day, and Sunday night. For a long
weekend simply add Monday day and Monday night to the mix.
So for a long weekend, we likely have seven chunks
of time to assign, and yes, hanging out at the
house is completely fine to assign for some of them,
but you probably don't want to do that for all seven.
It's good to have a balance and to treat some
(01:29):
of this extended time off as a little special. That
brings us to the question of what makes a good weekend.
We all have our own special recipes. Personally, I like
to do a date night, eating out somewhere, fancy a
long run, singing with my choir at church, and then
some sort of family adventure like going to a botanical
garden or the zoo or a bike ride. This mix
(01:52):
of four things doesn't happen every weekend, but if a
weekend does have those four components, I know I'll hit
the work week thinking wow, that was pretty good. There's
actually some research about what activities make people happiest. For
one study, researchers had a slew of people record how
they were feeling as they went about their days at
certain times when they were asked to report on how
(02:14):
they were feeling. Now, you may not be surprised to
learn that people were in the best moods during what
the researchers called intimate activities, though we can all ponder
the image of these people pausing in the middle of
such things while they recorded their feelings for research purposes.
In any case, a few other activities consistently hit the
top of the scale. People loved socializing, believe it or not.
(02:36):
They liked exercising too. They felt quite good while engaged
in spiritual activities. So for any weekend, long or regular,
you could think about these major categories. I recommend doing
something social, something physical, and something spiritual. Social is pretty straightforward,
a barbecue with friends at your house maybe, or brunch
(02:57):
with extended family. Physical is straightforward were two, though a
long weekend allows for slightly more adventurous ideas. Instead of
just doing a thirty minute run around your neighborhood, you
could go for a four hour hike in a nearby
state park, or rent canoes and paddle down a local
river with your family. I interpret the category of spiritual
activities broadly. It could certainly mean going to worship services,
(03:21):
but for people who aren't part of an organized religious community,
it could mean anything that elevates your soul. You could
volunteer somewhere and thus be part of something bigger than yourself.
You could do a longer meditation session, read devotional or
inspirational literature, are go taking something awe inspiring, like shooting
stars while you're camped far from city lights. So map
(03:44):
out what you and the people you spend weekends with
would like to do in these three categories. Figure out
which of the seven long weekend slots you're can assign
them to. Then, and this is just as important. We
need to minimize the time spent on half two dous
and these are just part of life. Even in the
best weekend ever, you might still need to run to
(04:05):
an a t M or put gas in your car.
In a previous episode of Before Breakfast, I recommended doing
chores and errands during the work week in order to
maximize family and leisure time on the weekend. But if
that's not happening and the grocery, shopping and laundry need
to get done, I recommend setting a specific window for
these things. If you walk around the whole weekend thinking
(04:27):
I need to clean my house, you'll feel miserable. You'll
do inefficient bits here and there, so the housework bleeds
into everything or else. You'll constantly feel guilty about not
doing it. But if you assign yourself a time, say
Sunday from three to five thirty p m. Before your
volunteer session at the food bank, then you can stop
thinking about it. If you find yourself looking at your
(04:49):
pile of dirty clothes on Saturday morning, you can tell
yourself there's a time for laundry, and now is not
that time, so you're free to relax and read a book,
or t your kids to the park or whatever you've
decided to do. So that's my advice for planning a
great long weekend. I'd love to hear about your recipe
for making the most of your time off. As always,
(05:12):
you can email me at Before Breakfast Podcast at I
heart media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening and here's to making the most of
our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
(05:35):
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number four then Breakfast
p o D. You can also shoot me an email
at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com
that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
(06:02):
Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. H
Before Breakfast News
Host
Laura Vanderkam
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