What do you do in rest of the 3 days?
I am anxious throughout the weekend. It may have to do with the lockdown we have.
But I am glued to mobile anyways or some sort of screen.
How can I work on this mindset?
I am anxious throughout the weekend. It may have to do with the lockdown we have.
But I am glued to mobile anyways or some sort of screen.
How can I work on this mindset?
Most people here are smart, hard-working and aspire to be high performers in whatever they do. So when you have an extra day off, you're expected to use it for an ambitious side project, self-improvement, learning new technology or whatever.
I have a part of this mindset in my identity, but it's a source of stress. So after a bit of a history of anxiety and depression in my past, I've made the deliberate decision to relegate this to the part my attention that's focused on employment and earning money. I never let it enter the part of my time that I have for myself.
This means that my three days off are spent on activities I find meaningful: Family, seeing friends, reading, playing computer games, hiking/biking/working out, philosophizing, re-filling my social introvert energy. Occasionally flying airplanes in summer, skiing or snow kiting in winter. I always say yes when opportunities to do activities with friends show up, and this never turns into a stressful thing since I always have the opportunity to recharge before work.
If I feel like doing something more structured and ambitious, something creative, I'll do it. But it has to come from the heart. Generally, I don't have a lot of excess creative energy even when working 4 days a week, and I'm perfectly okay with that.
I always have a lot of excess energy for handling stuff that might otherwise get low priority: Getting enough sleep, seeing enough friends, handling any physical or mental health issues that want attention. That's a big difference.
It was amazing. Two-day sprints separated by a day or two of rest are really, really productive for me. I never had Monday blahs because I was never facing a long haul of 5 days of work.
Number one recommendation I have for you, regardless of your working situation: change where you are. I don't mean move to another city, I mean keep work things away from personal things physically. If you have a corner that you always work in, never do anything else there. Go get exercise -- if you aren't doing any at all now, pull up a map and find a place about a kilometer from you. Walk there, walk back. When it's raining, take an umbrella. If it's too hot, take a bottle of water and an umbrella. There's nothing shameful about hiding from the sun.
> I logged into work today (Sunday) and that eased my usual Sunday "fear".
The weekends are short enough as it is!
I’m in the UK, and while I haven’t really heard that particular term used as a common saying, I intuitively knew what you meant! (Sadly)
I recently reduced my working hours (so I now have the freedom to work 3-4 days if I like or more if desired/needed) and I would say if you can make it work it’s 100% worth it.
It’s worth bearing in mind it doesn’t have to be permanent. You can suggest a “trial” to your employer to see if it works for both parties.
From my own experience I think it’s more likely that an employer will agree to this request than not.
Good luck if you decide to go for it.