7 easy ways to stop working weekends
By Jon Bergan (@jonbergan) in Workflow » Starting Out
Imagine this. It’s a Saturday morning, you’re sitting in your favourite arm chair, feet up and relaxing knowing that there is absolutely nothing you have to do today. No work. Nothing. You might have a hot cup of tea in one hand and your iPhone with Tweetdeck open in the other. You’re content just tweeting to friends, maybe catching some early morning television and simply letting time pass by. Stop imagining. You can do this. I do it every weekend.
It was during one of these relaxing weekend moments when I noticed a few of my fellow designers grumble about how they have to work on the weekend. Why work weekends when you don’t have to? Why shouldn’t you be 100% happy if you can be?
If you love working weekends – that’s awesome! If you don’t, then stop – now.
I run a busy creative design company, a blog and juggle some personal side projects and a wife. Sure, sometimes I’ll do some work on my blog or side projects on the weekend as I really do enjoy these things but I don’t do anything that relates to paid client work. I work on my own things if I work at all, but I haven’t had to work a weekend in over two years. And that’s that.
How did I achieve this? It’s simple. When I noticed myself working through my Saturdays a few years back, I took a few easy steps to ensure I’d never have to work on weekends again unless I really wanted to. Now you can do the same.
1. Create an end of week checklist
At the end of each week, create a checklist for all of the things you need to follow up on Monday. Work out what invoices are overdue, what bills need to be paid and what work needs to be completed. Work out exactly where your business is currently at so that once 5pm hits on Friday, you can stop worrying about it. If you know that everything in your company is taken care of, you won’t need to think or worry about it over the weekend.
2. Come up with an effective time management plan
I wrote an article on Fuel your Creativity titled Time Management Tips for the Busy Freelance Designer. It explains how you can come up with an effective time management plan for your entire week.
Having your week mapped out will ensure that you’re focusing on important tasks during the week rather than on the weekends. If you’re also working to a strict plan, you’ll find you have much more focus and motivation to get those jobs done in the time allocated to them.
3. Track your Time
Get a pen and paper and write down everything you do that is work related for an entire week. Track everything you do. From finishing specific projects to paying bills to browsing the web. Whatever it is, write it down. The purpose of this task is to work out where you’re wasting your time and how you could be more productive. All of us waste a lot of time each week but not all of us know exactly where that time goes. By identifying such time wasting activities, we can be more conscience of them when they unexpectedly pop up and stop them before they get out of hand.
4. Outsource unnecessary tasks
Outsourcing may seem costly but it’s not. Think about how much time (and money!) you waste on doing those tasks you hate or simply shouldn’t have to do. You should outsource anything that you’re not directly responsible for or don’t enjoy doing. This could include your bookkeeping, office administration, development work if you’re a designer (or visa versa) and more.
5. Make Plans for your Weekend
Pick up the phone and call your friends and family. Find out what they’re doing on the weekend and make plans to catch up with them. Hire some DVD’s or make plans with your family to go on a bit of a mini-vacation somewhere nearby. Do whatever you need to do to ensure you’re nowhere near your computer or office over the weekend.
6. Hire a designer or outsource some of your work
As designers, most of us hate doing this but sometimes you have to realize your limits. If you’re working weekends to meet deadlines, chances are you’re taking on too much work. Consider outsourcing portions of your project to other designers or developers you trust. Trial a few until you find one or two that fit your approach to business and then send work their way. This way you can share the work around without having to slave away behind a desk over the weekend.
7. Make the decision
At the end of the day, it comes down to choice. If you make the decision to stop working weekends, everything else will simply fall into place. Whether that be declining that extra project one week or simply delaying the completion of a project until early the following week – it always ends up coming together. Trust me. Make the call and the rest will follow.
Life is about experiences. It’s filling your days with new and exciting things, salivating over undeniably delicious foods, interacting with exceptionally awesome people and seeing the world. It isn’t about sitting behind a desk slaving away all day every day. Those same “important” tasks will be there when you get back and there will always be others to take their place once you complete them.
As the old saying goes, work to live and never live to work.
By Jon Bergan
Jon is a passionate web designer, developer and blogger from Australia. Whilst online, he spends most of his time knee deep in PHP code or blogging about good design and business advice. He is also a movie lover, guitar fiend, tea drinker and serial entrepreneur.
You can find out more about Jon here or you can catch up with him online via Twitter or Facebook.
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juggling a wife… you must be a strong man!… hehehe
great advice though mate… im in need of a ‘weekend’ i hear they’re great!
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lol. That was the first thing I picked up too Kiryn. Jon, loved the way you added Marnie in with juggling your side projects.
Some great points that you raised though. I could certainly do with taking note of some (or all) of them.
Anthony Hortin´s last post: How To Add Multiple Widget Sidebars To Your WordPress Blog
How about we take is one step further and stop working Fridays as well. I’m serious:)
Why do we (typically) work Mon-Fri anyway? It is stupid.. and we just do it because, well, it is the way it has always been done…
If we all know that we had only 4 days in a week to get work done, trust me, we would find a way. Its called Parkinson law.
Great post! Really enjoyed it…cheers!
Logobird´s last post: Beyond the Brief – Undertanding a Logo Design Client
Great post Jon, but you forgot one.
#8: Have babies. You’ll never find a spare moment to work on weekends… ever again!
Wow! So many great responses so far – thank you SO much! You’re all utterly awesome … but you knew that, right?!
@Kiryn, haha, yeah the wife thing can be challenging
*ducks @marnieb’s blow*. Definitely worth trying to squeeze a full weekend in now and then. Heck, I take an extra RDO off each month to recoup. As small business owners, we’re always crazy busy, so you have to know when to take some time out!
@Anth, take the weekend off mate! Just do it! I think points #1, #2 and #7 are some of the most important. The checklist really helped me to stop thinking about work over the weekend and the time management plan made sure I was focusing on what I was meant to when I was meant to. As for Marnie – you know as well as I do that its quite a juggling act
@Logobird/Duane, I agree! Although I probably wouldn’t take all Fridays off. I do take one Friday off a month also (see my comment to Kiryn) to try and catch up. I work like crazy during the week and I think I deserve it. Why are we running our own businesses if we can’t make such decisions yanno?!
As for standard work times, I agree. Its the web. Its the age of online business. We basically can work whenever we want. I’m looking at chopping things up a bit in that regard too. Why not? Times have changed. We no longer have to work Monday-Friday to do business.
@Sonja, Hahaha. Classic. That one will definitely need to be included! We don’t have kids yet but I’m sure once we do, all of this basically goes out the window.
Thanks again to everyone who has commented so far!
JB
While I like the idea in theory, I don’t think it stacks up in reality.
Sure if you are freelancing or running a small business with little to no overheads then it is fine, but if you are really committed to building a business for the future and something to be proud of then there is going to be sacrifices.
Sure you don’t want to be working weekends for the rest of your life, but wouldn’t you prefer to have a couple of hard years building a dream and then sitting back with “a hot cup of tea in one hand” after retiring at 35? I know I would!
From personal experience running a business that is undergoing solid, steady growth I have to ensure that not only are the clients happy, but that there is money in the bank to pay 6 staff, rent, suppliers, utilities, etc.
I also think that simply outsourcing tasks you cannot/do not want to do is a recipe for disaster! You really need to have your finger on the pulse of every aspect of a business to be able to help it grow and to shift the focus where and when it is needed.
We do outsource some of our daily tasks such as book keeping, copywriting, cleaning, etc but we always ensure that every week we are over everything that is happening in our business and that timelines are running to schedule, if that means there needs to be some additional then so be it. Our staff also appreciate this and have no problem working a little extra to get a job done.
You need to think of your business as your child, sure you could just outsource all the boring/tedious bits of raising them and just be around for the good bits, but the risk of missing an important moment would be too high. You would also lose the connection that is built up over time, built up through the good AND the bad times.
While I see where you are going with this I feel that it is aimed more at the freelancing side of design/development and not at the business development sector at all.
Cheers,
Dean
Dean´s last post: Lithium Released!
@Dean, nice reply there!
I do agree that you have to put the hard yards in to begin with – without a doubt – I’ve done my fair share of working weekends and the long nights spend coding for hours but at what point do you stop and shift things in the direction that you want to go in?
Establishing such routines now are bound to stick with you in the long term. Trust me. Its the routines you create for yourself now that determine how you’ll act in the future. I know entrepreneurs who run successful businesses and they still work every Saturday and Sunday and they still whinge about it. They hate it but they can’t (or won’t) change it.
I do see your point though. It is utterly important to put the hard yards in early on. You have to establish your business, your network of associates and simply get your work/name out there. But at some point you have to stop and start doing things for yourself.
As for retiring at 35 – I don’t think any of us want to retire at 35! What a boring life we’d have! We all have to work – thats life it seems!
Thanks again though – Good to see you guys commenting on here!
JB
Thanks for the reply!
I think the time to stop is when you are happy with how things are running, it all comes down to getting written procedures in place and training staff to take on roles that you have been doing.
Being young and energetic I think that spending the time now developing something for the future is well worth it.
I am looking forward to retiring at 35 as I can then do whatever I like, by retiring I don’t mean the usual “get old and sit on the porch” type of retiring, my idea of retiring is being in a stable financial situation where you dont HAVE to work, it would be a life choice rather than a necessity.
Cheers,
Dean
Dean´s last post: Lithium Released!
I think it still depends very much on individual. Some people prefer to work on weekends, it’s less hectic and could get things done more easier. While others simply are workaholic.
Thanks for the tips JB!
Aidan´s last post: The 5 Cs of Hiring a Freelance Designer
Agreed Aiden! It definitely comes down to personal preference. I know I’d probably prefer to work weekends if I could take some time off during the week. You definitely have less interruptions thats for sure!
Thanks for the comment buddy!
JB
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