Full Time, All the Time
with Britt Reints
Forget the 9 to 5; Full Time, All the Time is a blog about the mobile working life - when you have the freedom to work from anywhere and the responsibility of always having your smartphone turned on. Britt Reints works as a freelance writer while traveling fulltime in an RV with her husband and two kids. She explores balancing real-life bills with an unconventional work life, and finding time to maintain relationships with family and friends.
You can also find Britt at InPursuitOfHappiness.net.
If Monday is the worst day of the week, Saturday is probably a close second. My weekends are quickly getting out of control. There’s always some game for whatever sport my son is playing that season. There’s always a trip to the grocery store, the farmer’s market, or fighting the crowds at the mega-giant Costco. There’s a weekly trip to the library to check out new books and free movies. There’s stuff around the house that is begging to be fixed, cleaned, dusted, mopped, or put away. Weekends, which should be my reprieve for working a 40+ hour week, have turned into a bit of a nightmare.
A couple of years ago, my spouse and I made a pact to keep our weekends as technology-free as possible. I turn off my work-email that flows to my BlackBerry. I rarely even get on the computer unless it is to check a movie time or get directions to someone’s house for a birthday party. But living with less technology doesn’t get rid of a weekend schedule that can easily get out of control.
This past weekend for instance, there was a youth basketball game, a harvest of oranges off our backyard tree, and juicing dozens of those oranges to make fresh juice. There was an afternoon playdate and late dinner with a good friend and her daughter. There was playing on the Wii (a reward my son gets for having a good week at school). There were a couple of trips to the local hardware store to get our sticky front door unstuck. There was menu-planning, split-pea soup making, and laundry folding. Then there was my crazy idea to pickle twelve pounds of cucumbers which resulted in two trips to the farmer’s market plus three different stores, not to mention hogging my entire Sunday from noon to nearly 9pm. And this was all in a weekend were we said that we were going to “slow down” and spend more time at home.
Waking up this morning was practically a relief from the busy weekend. I know what the solution is to my problem: schedule less on the weekends. But of course, it is easier said than done. If stuff doesn’t get done on the weekend, it stands a snowball’s chance in hell to get accomplished during the week.
Please tell me I’m not alone. Are you more stressed from busy weekends than your work week?
photo credit: anylessreal
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Well, since I work 7 days a week, I would say weekends are a lot less stressful. I rarely have conference calls or interactions with aggravating clients on weekends.
I do try to do more housework on the weekend. And that’s also when I tackle some of the “big stuff.” But I do have maid service as a back-up (monthly) if I can’t get to everything. I don’t even try to vacuum or dust, unless someone important is coming over. I do like to wash the kitchen and bathroom floors and such every couple of weeks. I actually enjoy this time as “family time” because it gives me a chance to get hands-on, down-to-earth with my kids and home.
I usually squeeze grocery shopping into a week night in order to have Saturday afternoon / evening free for more meaningful things.
My kids have homework now, but they do it Mon - Thurs only. I like this and think I will make it a general rule going forward. That’s one less responsibility to deal with on weekends.
I do want to start taking my kids to church this year. So that is something we’ll have to work into the weekend schedule. But for me, all this is much more pleasant than the daily grind during the “work week.” After all, I’m with my kids, and they are my favorite people.
SKL | January 25th, 2010 at 11:40 am
I try to split everything I have to do across Sat & Sun, but I’m not always successful. I used to cook big meals on the weekends for eating during the week, but I found that more stressful than cooking simple meals during the week so I quit. I’m online a lot on the weekends, but not for work. I catch up on my blog reading and writing on those days.
I used to work 4 days a week, and I reserved Friday for errands. It made a world of difference. If I ever get to work part time or for myself again, that’s the plan.
lynn @ human, being | January 25th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
I think my biggest weekend stresses come from having drill weekends and then working my one Saturday a month bar shift afterwards. Usually, the two are back-to-back, so I’m effectively working 2 - 2.5 weeks straight without even a day off. That alone isn’t so bad, but it puts a serious damper on the family time I cherish.
Phe | January 26th, 2010 at 6:46 am
My daughter’s father takes his visitation every Saturday as opposed to alternating weekends so I try to do something on Saturday that is just for me. It can be brunch with a friend, it can be a walk to the library to get books and take all the time I want to browsing.
Sundays is church and hang time at home, board games, naps if warranted.
All housework (excepting dishes or emergencies due to spills, accidents) is done only on weekends. If I dont’ get to it, it waits until next week. This week was the kitchen deep clean, so the spare room didn’t get cleaned. C’est la vie, no one goes in there but the cat right now anyway because it’s the coldest room in the house.
Mich | January 26th, 2010 at 9:01 am