How To Remain Motivated On The Weekends

Weekends are a 48 hour period of time in which you want to spend every second away from work. Unfortunately, unless you do all of your work on Friday night, this isn't possible, especially in college. It's incredibly difficult to spend even a fraction of your Saturday doing something productive. Lounging in your pajamas until noon or reading a chapter or two from a textbook is definitely not a toss-up. Would you believe me if I told you that there is a way to be motivated and get work done on the weekends while still being able to enjoy it and relax after a stressful week?

1. Give yourself a time frame. Pick a time of day to get your work done. I prefer using the late morning and early afternoon, the time between breakfast and lunchtime, to do my schoolwork. I get to sleep in, enjoy my breakfast, catch up on some reading and social media, then head into the "boring" stuff (I love my majors, so it isn't really that boring for me). Then, after I complete my assignments, I've got the entire rest of the day to binge watch television shows, walk around downtown, or workout. The possibilities are endless!

2. Use breaks and the reward system. Working yourself continuously until you finish isn't really beneficial. Sure, you might think you'll get it done faster, but you could make mistakes trying to rush through it or end up taking more time procrastinating and lolly-gaggling. If you give yourself five minute breaks here and there to check Twitter or Instagram, you'll break up the workload, keep yourself interested, and won't try to rush through everything. Along the same lines, if you do 20 minutes of good work, give yourself 5-10 minutes of free time to browse the web, get a snack, or watch some YouTube videos. 

3. Sundays exist for a reason. If you really want to make the most of your Saturday, Sundays exist for a reason. Any work that you avoided on Saturday can always been made up on a Sunday (unless you've got a Saturday due date...always keep track of those!). If you know that your assignments aren't that large and won't require a lot of time, putting them off until Sunday won't be the end of the world. 

4. Get it done beforehand. Even when I had Friday classes, I still tried to get all of my homework done after my last class on Friday so I could have the rest of the weekend free from any actual work (though I would frequently catch up on textbook readings or study for the inevitable test that week). If you get it done beforehand, you don't have to worry about it. Maybe give it a quick check and edit on Sunday night before you hand it in and you'll be solid. 

5. If you don't procrastinate, you'll get it done faster. Utilize #2 to help with this. Forcing yourself to stay focused isn't necessary, but don't let yourself get too distracted during your period of work. The longer you put something off, the more you're hurting yourself. Just suck it up, grab a pen and paper, and just do it. It's not going to do itself!

6. Fun can come before work, just be careful. I'm not a total buzzkill. I know what happens on college campuses. People like to go out and hang out with their friends or party. Weekends are for fun, not schoolwork, which is fine! You're supposed to have tons of fun in college (but you don't have to feel pressured to, either). When it comes to social activities before schoolwork, just be cautious. If it's a frequent occurrence, try to get it done before hand, or at least have a solid work plan for Sunday so you don't miss out on any important points. 

How do you stay motivated over the weekends?