It’s Saturday morning. You just made yourself breakfast, and now you’re debating how you should spend the rest of your day. Your brain is telling you to work on the ten page research paper that you spent the entire previous week procrastinating, but your heart and your body are begging for you to rest and recover from the stressful week you just had. In a perfect world, weekends would be solely for relaxation, a short two-day escape from work and school and all of the stresses that come with it. But this isn’t a perfect world, and we are all very busy people. So, how can you find the right balance between productivity and relaxation on your days off?
For those of us with a constant, never-ending check-list in our head, it can be difficult to give ourselves a day where no boxes get checked off. Sure, relaxing in the moment is always nice, but it is never a good feeling when night time rolls around and you realize no dent was made in the neverending list of tasks that must be done. One way I try to combat this feeling while simultaneously giving my body the rest it needs is by creating checklists with solely satisfying activities, that aren’t high priority assignments, but are still tasks that have been wandering around my brain, waiting to find the right time. This might look a little something like this:
- Make strawberry pancakes
- Go on a mid-day bike ride
- Watch a few episodes of that show I’ve been meaning to watch
- Have a picnic with my best friends
- Give my room a good deep clean
- Paint my nails
- Do a pilates workout
- Read a book for fun
- Take a well deserved nap
When I know I need to decompress but still feel the need to be productive, making a handwritten checklist of leisurely activities that are always scattered around my mind but I never quite get around to during the week is a wonderful way to alleviate and ease my anxiety and give a sense of structure to an otherwise amorphous day. Instead of bedrotting and stressing about deadlines and due dates, I can instead feel the high of accomplishing a task, while simultaneously taking care of my mental and physical health.Â
Simply asking yourself in the morning: “What would make this day satisfying for me?” or “How do I want to feel when I go to bed tonight?” is one way to set yourself up for a successful day and get on the right track to reset your brain so you can tackle the many daunting and overwhelming assignments that college demands. Especially now, in the midst of finals week, it is vital to remember to give yourself grace and a chance for your body and mind to recuperate before jumping headfirst into bigger tasks.
Remember that the weekends are first and foremost to take care of yourself, your health, and your wellbeing; your productivity comes second.
