How to make a memorable weekend

Every Friday we just want to stop the world for a moment and give you a couple of real tips to think about that will make a real difference to your business and in your life.

How many times has someone asked, “what’d you get up to on the weekend?” and you struggled to think of something interesting to say.  Or maybe you answered with, “nothing much – you?”

It happens a lot because people, and especially small business owners, are getting busier and busier.  And while you are paying the price, the silent victim is “the memorable weekend” – a dying breed.  When I talk about the memorable weekend, I‘m not talking about an extravagant string of party boats and skydiving trips.  I’m talking about a weekend where you were able to take time out to do more than simply recover and reload.  The memorable weekend should be something you can have with your family and friends and feel good enough to not only have a good one, but a great one.

“Youth is wasted on the young” and “weekends are wasted on the weary.”

There’s an element of truth to these two ideas and as far as I can tell, the common denominator is intent.  Or at least the two-sided coin that is intent.  On the one hand you have some (not all but some) younger people that get a little complacent because “if I don’t do anything with this weekend, there’s always next weekend or the weekend after.”  Nutty – because life is short.  On the other hand there are those that work hard (possibly too hard) and find themselves too physically and/or mentally exhausted to celebrate whatever successes their business has enjoyed.  They end up telling themselves that an annual relaxing, tropical island holiday will fix them up however that may only account for 10days out of approximately 253 workdays in any one year.

Like everything that you want to go well, there has to be an element of planning and pre-planning to have a memorable weekend.  Can you really close up shop, log off and/or shut it down at the end of a huge work week and expect to slide right into a refreshing and yet exhilarating weekend with any forethought?

Plan to succeed even especially on the weekend

There are a number of tips that will help you get the memorable weekend right:

1. Understand your numbers to the point that you know how many hours you need to put in to achieve your monthly target. (Oh, if you haven’t already, work with someone to find out what that target is.)
2. Remember why you got into running your own business – so that you can have more time for you and yours.
3. Make family and social time over the weekend, an immovable object in your calendar but also take care to add in prep time.   i.e. will you put in a couple of extra hours on Wednesday so you can take off a little earlier on Friday?  How about booking out a whole Tuesday afternoon to shop for the perfect gift for your 4year old’s birthday on the weekend because deep down, you must know that a gift card just isn’t going to cut it.

And here’s one final quote to finish with just in case I haven’t convinced you to take some time for you and your family this weekend.  “No one, laying on their deathbed, ever said, “I wish I had spent more time in the office.”  If you’d like help, putting your business in a position to better support your lifestyle, we can help you.  Give us a call and here’s to a memorable weekend.