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Weekend Do-over

A friend shared this on social media.


My first reaction was "of course you can". I do that every weekend. I work Wednesday to Friday. So Monday and Tuesday are my 'second weekend'.

Sadly though, not all employers offer 3-day-a-week jobs. And it is sad.

Sub-consciously we realise that we are spending a lot of time working and not so much time enjoying the benefits of that work.

As a result we start to resent the work that we do (even though it's our chosen line of work) because it takes up so much of our time.

Sometimes the standard weekend is barely enough to recuperate from a stressful week and catch up on household chores and then it's back to work again.

We hunger for more time to actually live life and enjoy it.

So how can we do it?

1. Hope that employers realise this great opportunity. Offering a diversity of work options can help them compete for the best employees. Working 3 days per week is also more productive.

2. Team up. Where I used to work there was a pair of people who actually applied for their job as a pair - each working 2.5 days per week. Again this relies on the employer being smart enough to realise that they are getting two brains for the price of one.

3. Take breaks between jobs. If we're in the position to do so, sometimes a break between jobs (kind of like a mini-gap year) can be a good opportunity to escape the grind and enjoy life. So many of us don't use up our annual leave. That pay-out can help you have some time-off at the end.

4. Set your own hours. If you're self-employed you can sometimes set your own hours. A tradesman was recently telling me how he moved to four days per week to spend more time at home with his kids.

5. Be more selective with spending our money. Most of these options also mean getting by on less income than before. But do we really need that much money for a good life? That's a question worth asking.

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