The weekend gives most of us the chance to downshift and recharge. But how often do we seize on it to catch up or get ahead on our work instead?<\/p>\n\n
If researchers are right, more than ever before. Not only are we working more hours on the weekend, we\u2019re cramming the time with more chores, errands, and other to-dos. \u201c[T]he data support the theory that Sundays . . . are becoming ever-more harried,\u201d says one report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Why? We like the feeling of being productive and getting ahead<\/a>. But we should slow down and resist the temptation.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a high-achiever like I am, you have more projects than time. It\u2019s easy to think of weekends as simply another opportunity to get more things done. But downtime is crucial, and there\u2019s more evidence than ever it\u2019s essential to our productivity and wellbeing.<\/p>\n\n A \u201csymphonic life,\u201d as I\u2019ve posted before<\/a>, doesn\u2019t allow work to dominate. It takes advantage of natural times to blow off work and rejuvenate. Here are three reasons to unplug this weekend.<\/p>\n When researching people who demonstrated deep joy and life satisfaction, Bren\u00e9 Brown found<\/a> they \u201cfool around a lot.\u201d In other words, happy people play.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to disregard playing as trivial, especially when there are so many \u201cserious\u201d things we need to do: problems to solve, deadlines to meet, tasks to finish. But play actually help us with all these things. It\u2019s rejuvenating and stimulates our creativity.<\/p>\n \u201cPlay nurtures a supple mind, a willingness to think in new categories, and an ability to make unexpected associations,\u201d says Virginia Postrel<\/a> after reviewing some of the growing research on the importance of play. \u201cThe spirit of play not only encourages problem solving but, through novel analogies, fosters originality and clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNothing lights up the brain like play,\u201d says researcher Stuart Brown, and it\u2019s worth watching his TED Talk<\/a> on the topic.<\/p>\n Play also helps us pop the stress balloon. Greg McKeown talks about this in Essentialism<\/a><\/em>. Maybe that\u2019s a \u201cduh\u201d for most of you, but I forget it pretty easily. Then I goof around with my grandkids and feel almost instantly refreshed. Just a brief time playing makes a big difference in my energy level and how I see the world.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve talked a lot about sleep<\/a> over the years. A while back I read that Yahoo\u2019s CEO missed a high-power advertising meeting because she fell asleep before the event<\/a> and kept people waiting nearly two hours.<\/p>\n The strange thing is that most of the coverage I read said nothing about how she brags about sleeping just four to six hours a night<\/a>. She defends working 80 hours a week by saying she gets enough vacations.<\/p>\n Apparently not.<\/p>\n Can we stop this already\u2014this culture that values accomplishment at the cost of basic human needs like sleep? People have been sleeping since the beginning of time, and yet we think we can go without it. Isn\u2019t it bizarre? We wouldn\u2019t do that with food or water, but sleep is just as essential.<\/p>\n So close the laptop and take a nap. Or go to bed early. Or get up late. Don\u2019t set the alarm. Just rest.<\/p>\n Now for the hard one. How often do you daydream or even allow yourself to get bored? This is a major struggle for me. It\u2019s far too easy to scan Twitter or Facebook, flip through Netflix, or catch up on my RSS feeds. If I\u2019m unoccupied I feel guilty. But it turns out there\u2019s a lot of value in letting our minds just wander.<\/p>\n Daniel Goleman calls<\/a> this \u201copen awareness\u201d and says when our minds wander we\u2019re free to:<\/p>\n Defending this kind of deep-thinking downtime, Scott Belsky recommends intentional unplugging on the weekends. \u201cThe notion of a day every week reserved for reflection has become more important than ever before,\u201d he says<\/a>.<\/p>\n I usually feel unproductive in these moments. But that\u2019s the point. Our brains aren\u2019t designed to go nonstop. When we drop into neutral, ideas flow on their own, memories sort themselves out, and we give ourselves a chance to rejuvenate.<\/p>\n\t\t1. We Need to Play<\/h3>\n
2. We Need to Rest<\/h3>\n
3. We Need Time with Our Thoughts<\/h3>\n
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