Long Weekend Accomplishment

The first long weekend of the year is in the books and I struggled with it the way that I normally struggle with long weekends. I look forward to the extra day of rest just like everyone else, but I also struggle with what that extra day means logistically, as in how will I fill that day? As I have mentioned a few times I try to take Saturdays off so that I can have time to relax and reflect before working on my to do list on Sunday. That to do list is usually some kind of writing, articles, conference papers, or even abstracts for calls for papers.

Saturday I eased into the long weekend by going to brunch with a former colleague that I don't see very often. It was a lovely time with great discussion. Then I debated what to do with myself for the remainder of the day. I did have a book to read but it was a book for work, and not necessarily a book for fun so I felt that meant it was not how I should spend this day off. I also have a long list of things bookmarked to watch on Netflix, but to be honest it’s all a bit underwhelming so I didn’t even have the desire to watch any of it. So I spent the remainder of the day as one does in 2020, scrolling through social media and napping and cooking soup. Not very exciting stuff, not necessarily really relaxing either.

Sunday I had a decision to make, would I work on something or take another day since I had Monday to work on stuff if I wanted to? This was a difficult decision for me, but I decided to wait to do work on Monday so that I could truly say, look at me, relaxing for two days, as the province intended. I kept thinking of this great book by Katrina Onstad, that I read a few years ago called The Weekend Effect. She did a lot of research on what makes for a relaxing weekend and how studies show that we actually need 3 days to relax because the first day we are coming down from being at work, the second day is the day of relaxation, and the third day is revving up to be back at work. But as per usual it was really difficult for me to release from the urge to do some kind of work. So I went for a walk and decided to focus on one thing, and ha ha of course that one thing ended up being work. I came back from my hour plus walk with all the key points for a CFP abstract I need to work on next week. So ok not exactly chill but still pretty satisfying and bringing with it a small sense of accomplishment.

Today I woke up with pep, Monday, I get to do work today! (Honestly I always feel this deep urge to apologize for this tendency in me, but I am still unsure why I feel the need to apologize-academe does things to your internal value system). I had breakfast and then worked on a workshop that I will be delivering in 3 weeks in Boston. It was a good half day of work but when I stopped around 4 it was pretty much done and only needs a few final edits. It came with such a sense of accomplishment that I decided I needed to go for a celebratory walk. I had managed to somewhat relax and also finish something I wanted to finish this weekend. Success! But then of course my mind went to, oh but you didn’t blog this weekend, what will you blog about? Accomplishment and what it means to feel like you have had a successful weekend, sounds great!

It is now after 7 and I have a few hours before I need to go to bed to get a good rest for work tomorrow. I am still not impressed with what is in my Netflix queue, I am still not really motivated to start reading that work related book (that can be tomorrow since all my other library holds are so very slow in arriving). So maybe make some dinner, have a nice glass of wine, and bask in the sense of long weekend accomplishment. I was probably a lot more productive today because I took those two days off in fact. I was probably more insightful because I took the time to go for a walk as I processed that abstract or determined my blog topic. I didn't go skiing, I didn't get out of town, but I did things that mattered to me. Everyone’s sense and attainment of the feeling of accomplishment is different. For some it would be doing nothing the whole weekend and spending time with friends or family. For me it was checking off a few things on my to dos and being okay with not reading a book, or watching some Netflix series I really didn’t want to. What were your long weekend accomplishments?