What constitutes as a great weekend? The answer tends to range from person to person. Some people love a weekend that is crammed with activities and events from start to finish. Others crave a slower setting, enjoying time spent unplugging and unwinding.
Collectively, however, we want to focus on doing things that make us feel good and productive. Think of activities like meal prep, going for walks or runs, and meditating. These are just a few habits that allow us to experience feelings of satisfaction. The same habits allow us to start the week on a high note and keep those vibes present all week long.
Ready to introduce a simple habit into your weekend that can contribute to the week’s overall success? Shake up Saturday and Sunday with these practices.
Eat Vegetables
If you didn’t manage to get in your greens during the week, now’s the time to squeeze them into your weekend diet.
Elizabeth O’Connor, wellbeing educator and founder of SALVEO Lifestyle, has a few suggestions for how to eat — and anticipate eating — your weekly vegetables.
Add them in your breakfast plans in the morning, ensuring the most important meal of the day is packed with plenty of veggies. Keep a container of sliced up veggies, like bell peppers, cucumbers, and carrots, in the fridge to snack on during the day.
If you make smoothies, green them up. “Throw a handful of spinach into your smoothie,” O’Connor advises. “The spinach has no taste and packs a ton of nutrients.”
Make a Music Playlist
Planning to exercise or work out during the weekend? Chances are you’ll be doing it while listening to music. The tempo of the music should be able to correspond with the exercise activity of your choice, so it’s a good idea to create playlists with songs that match up to your workout.
Before you create these playlists, you need to understand the song tempo. Find out the beats per minute (BPM) in a song. You can calculate this number with the help of Song BPM, a tool that analyzes the BPM in a song in seconds.
For example, according to Song BPM the song “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd has a BPM of 171. This is definitely ideal for playlists accompanying high-intensity activities like indoor cycling where BPM ranges between 140 to 180 beats per minute.
Seeking to power down to a slower, more mellow BPM when practicing yoga or Pilates? Songs on these playlists should ideally be between 60 to 90 BPM. “Come Away With Me” by Norah Jones, measuring at 80 BPM, might be a great fit for these low-intensity exercises.
Whatever songs you choose for these playlists, keep the BPM in mind! This will help you get the most out of your workout and connect even deeper to consistent exercise that keeps you moving.
Reach Out to Friends
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, our weekends were jam-packed with brunch outings, movie nights, and group events and workouts spent in the company of close friends. While we may not be able to be physically together at the moment, the weekend is the best time to reach out to friends to check in together.
Irina Cozma, Ph.D. is the owner of Irina Cozma Consulting LLC. She highly recommends using the weekends to build and nurture your network. When possible, Cozma encourages individuals to reach out to at least two different people every weekend — one old acquaintance or friend and a new person you’d love to have as a connection.
“Those with whom you don’t talk with often have the biggest potential to bring value to you on the long term,” Cozma explains. “They will have a different perspective, and a different circle of influence. They could contribute to your success in unexpected ways.”
Use this time to reconnect and celebrate each connection’s personal accomplishments. Go above and beyond in congratulating them for their work anniversaries, promotions, and any other achievements they may have experienced in their careers.
Cozma adds that these acknowledgements will not be ignored or forgotten.
“When the time will come where you need their support, you will have already built a base that allows you to ask for that support a bit more easily,” Cozma says. “Having such a diverse and mix network will allow you to make faster progress on your goals.”
In the end, it gets you closer to success and makes your life easier. Make it a consistent habit: one connection at a time, one weekend at a time.
Reflect on the Previous Week
During the weekend, we often prepare for the incoming week ahead. We create to-do lists, plan out meals, and time block our schedules.
What happens if we stop planning ahead and look back on the week that just ended? The truth is nothing happens to those upcoming plans. They’ll still be there. Now it’s time to focus on the person behind the planning (AKA you!) and give them some much-needed attention.
Lashawn Gee, discipline and mindset coach at ElleGee Wellness Solutions, calls it putting on your life vest first.
Gee advises taking time during weekends to fill yourself back up or get filled up by those around you. This is part of a discipline act where we may utilize the weekend to reflect on the previous week and batch our schedules for the week ahead. Activities like meal prep or setting out the clothes we’ll wear to work the night before do more than allow us to take care of ourselves. They help us take care of others and even free up time during the week that allows us to be successful in other areas of our lives.
“When you take the time over the weekend to reflect on your week and then implement self-care acts, you’re honoring yourself through taking care of yourself well,” Gee says.