Monday, 6/25

So did you have lazy weekends or fun weekends?

The reason I ask is that somewhere in my travels over the past few weeks, I read an article about how for most people their weekend takes two forms—they either have a “lazy” weekend, where they sit around and don't do much, or they have a “fun” weekend, where they get out and play and do stuff they normally don't do. According to the article, research has shown something a little counter-intuitive, that people who have a 'fun” weekend actually go back to work on Monday more refreshed and rested than people who have a “lazy” weekend.

Weird, huh? But based, at least, on my own experience, I kinda think it's true. I know that in any given “normal” winter I spend a lot of my weekends inside, lying around, reading, and generally not doing too much. Then when I go back to work on Monday, I'm still kind of “blah”. But during the summer, when Loraine and I are out walking and biking and exploring and doing whatever, I feel recharged when I go back to work. Now, I always chalked it up to the fact that during the winter it's cold and you don't get a lot of sun, but after reading that article...

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I'm proof that the research really IS accurate!

Like most people, I had not given one iota of thought to how I spend my weekends. Maybe some of that is because I usually work part of a weekend, maybe some of that is because there are just certain chores that need to get done on a weekend, and so that's how I spend part of that time. But now that I've read the article, and have seen how it actually applies to the real world (or at least MY real world), I'm thinking this--

I'm thinking that no matter how tired I am, that no matter how beat down the previous week had made me, that I need to go and have FUN. Not sit around and take a nap, not hang out and watch the clock count down the hours until the weekend's over, but to get out and have fun like it was a sunny summer day.

Even if it's not.

Now, I realize that won't be possible every weekend of the year, sad to say. But if knowing is half the battle, then I consider myself well-armed to get the most of our whatever time off I can scrounge, especially on a weekend.

Hope you can do the same, too. So when you get to your next Saturday and you're wondering what you should do, just remember—the more you do, the better you feel. The science says so!

(jim@wmqt.com)