My latest lifehack is especially dedicated to full-time workers. I call it productive Saturday, and of course it helps to make our Saturday more productive.
Ok, but why Saturday?
During workdays we often don’t have enough time for our small personal tasks that don’t concern our regular work. Right after we return from office, we are tired, low energy and we don’t even want to take a look at our extremely long TO DO list.
Let’s perform these tasks on Saturday.
Saturday is free. You probably don’t have to go to the office. You can wake up when you want and when you have enough sleep. Therefore, you are full of energy. You can kick your day with short exercises, solid breakfast and favorite energetic music. You are not in office mood. You know that this is Saturday, so the whole thing would be easier.
How-to?
Start preparing for your productive Saturday as early as on Monday. During work week, make a separate TO DO List for your Saturday’s tasks. If it would be your first productive Saturday, don’t put too much things on your schedule - just few, easy tasks.
My own case study
My first productive Saturday included one hour of fast reading, writing a post, tiding up my CD’s and sauna.
I started my Saturday the way I like it. I had enough sleep; I took a shower and ate good breakfast. There was no need to worry or hurry. I was in really good, weekend mood and that really helped.
Another important point is that I had a plan what to do. I had my list of tasks. This way, it is not another Saturday, after hard week at work, when I don’t know what to do with my free time and I only procrastinate.
All these were enough to boost my productivity. Few tasks from my list were only a pleasure. When my productive Saturday was completed, I was really satisfied with it. I didn’t waste my time.
Try it. Don’t plan productive Saturday each week and don’t put too much tasks. Remember that Saturday is also for relax and time with family.
Of course after complete mission, reward yourself. For example you can enjoy some 80’s TV shows or other timewasters.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Interesting lifehack. Kinda reminds me of a concept of structured procrastination.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
[...] KacperWrzesniewski.com created an interesting post today on Productive Saturday - My latest lifehackHere’s a short outline [...]
May 25th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
[...] Kacper helps you manage your time on Saturdays. [...]
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:08 am
Great post
I’ve been doing this exact thing for about six months now when I found your site, it works very well. I have a productive Saturday pretty much every Saturday but I limit my tasks to 4 hours maximum so it doesn’t feel like my Saturday is all work (which sometimes when you factor in washing, ironing, house chores, gardening etc, it can be!).
I use my Saturday’s this way so I don’t even have to think about being productive once I’m home from work because I’m just too tired and brain-dead by then. I’ll take a Saturday off every 6 weeks or so, and I *always* reserve Sunday’s entirely for myself to do only stuff I actually want to do. It works pretty well