I’m a big proponent of work life balance, so I don’t advocate that everyone become a workaholic and devote their entire lives to their jobs.  On the flip side, sometimes you keep slipping behind and you really need to get some serious work done over the weekend.  How do you balance the two?  Here are some tips to get productive this weekend (and still have time for your family and friends):

Tackle small to medium-sized tasks: If you know you have limited time, don’t try to get “the big project” done.  Instead, look at your task list and knock off a couple of those “should get done” tasks that you just keep putting off.  That will lighten up the load during the weekday.

Schedule in your work time:  If you decide you want to work on the weekends, but never seem to get to it, schedule it in just like a meeting.  Put it in your todo list app.  Don’t pick a time when you want to something else (for me, that’s during daylight hours when it’s sunny outside).

Make use of inefficient pockets of time:  Over the weekend, we tend to let a lot more inefficient time go to waste.  We surf Facebook longer than we should or don’t catch up on professional reading on the bus.  Be active about keeping your work habits efficient over the weekend too, and save your real down time for things you truly enjoy.

Plan your “work weekend” when you’re not doing something big: If you schedule a weekend for work the same weekend that you’re driving 3 hours to visit Aunt Jodie, chances are, work won’t happen.  You’re more likely to get things done on your more “normal” weekends.

-Deborah Fike

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