Weekends are safe haven, a retreat straight to our comfortable couches in the hallway, binging away on potato chips and endless shows on the TV. After a week long of hard working, it definitely makes sense to let loose of all and hit the couch hard when weekend is around. This is how we ‘Normal’ people presume of a ‘Perfect weekend’, but for successful people, it is something entirely different. Being Successful is a pretty subjective term, and there are a few signs that indicate you are succeeding in life, without your own knowledge!
While weekends are a retreat from the daily life of hustle and bustle for the regular people, for successful people they have their own vision of a perfect weekend. There are some people for whom weekend is an added advantage for leaping ahead of competition by putting in even more hours, while for some it is time for rejuvenating oneself and for some introspection. The definition of a ‘Perfect weekend’ doesn’t exist and it is all about how you strike a balance between work and play over the days.
6 Ways Successful People Spend their Weekend
Successful people are the ones who have managed to achieve their perfect balance between their work, personal and family lives. How they spend their weekends say a lot about themselves and there are some key takeaways which should be of interest for everyone. Here are 6 ways Successful people spend their Weekends, to start incorporating them into your schedule.
#1 They Wake up Early
Contrary to what most people would love to hear, successful people are pretty much time conscious about how their weekends are spent. Late night binge watching and lazy weekend mornings are what most people are used to, but successful people take their weekends just as serious as their work days. Successful people always want to make most of their available time, and that includes waking up early even on weekends. Disney CEO Robert Iger wakes up as early as 4:30 am, even on weekends. Successful people do not blow away their weekends sleeping till late mornings or afternoon!
For most of the people, early mornings are the times of higher productivity and least distractions. Also, most of the successful people believe that waking up early even during the weekends gives them a head start over their competitors. A short afternoon nap usually makes place for itself in their schedule as long morning sleep usually leaves people dazed. For a positive and energetic start to their weekends, successful people usually tend to wake up early.
#2 They keep Hustling
For regular people, weekends are about completely resting the body to nothingness, which usually leads to a lethargic mind and body. Successful people know that a healthy mind and body are the key to a happy soul. Weekends are a great way for them to bring up some activities and keep their bodies active, instead of choosing to doze down the couch. Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Atlantic, loves to spend his weekends surfing down the oceans. During Techonomy 2011, Jack Dorsey told the audience that he loves to hike on Saturdays to give time for introspection while keeping the body perfectly active.
Google founder Sergey Brin is an admirer of high adrenaline activities and spends his weekends bungee jumping, sky diving, roller skating and more. Staying active even over the weekends is important to successful people and they make the most of every opportunity that comes their way to push beyond their limits. Being outdoors also leads to a better creativity infusion as compared to languishing indoors over the weekend. Physical activity make up an important part in the weekend plans of successful people.
#3 They spend time on their Interests
Successful people tend to spend most of their weekends doing activities that they possessed an innate liking for. Passion and interests are ingrained into our lives before we are told by the world what it expects from us. In the daily hustle and bustle of lives, our true passion and interests find our least attention. Childhood dreams and plans are a great place to begin with and successful people always make time for activities which were always of their great interest.
Successful people value their hobbies just as they would with their business and work. This where they come to find true happiness, in the existence of little moments that light up their world. Painting for George W Bush, Kite boarding for Richard Branson, knitting for Meryl Streep and Sailing for Larry Ellison are some of the hobbies of the highly successful people that they pursue over their weekends.
#4 They do have Plans for the weekend
It is a common belief that weekends are just good without any plans assigned to those days. Successful people tend to plan their weekends properly beforehand, but while keeping their scheduling a bit flexible. Although not as rigorously scheduled as a work day, a bit of uncertainty forms a part of the weekend planning of successful people. Slacking off over the weekend without a strict plan and goals often lead to an unproductive and slow beginning to Monday mornings. Successful people have daily goals and plans, even for the weekends and they try and stick to their plans.
Priorities are what that separates the successful people from the rest. Successful people try to get their priorities right even over the weekend and make plans accordingly. Also, planning for the week ahead on upcoming work would help in reducing stress and significantly improve productivity over the course of the week.
#5 Weekends mean Family time
Successful people realize that striking a right balance between work and family life is essential for a happy life. They set aside their weekends and all the daily chores to spend some quality time with their significant other and kids. Taking your spouse out to her favorite location, your kids to their favorite parks and meeting your parents over the weekends are a great way to emotionally reinstate balance in your work life.
Image Credit: Forbes
Elon Musk, the Billionaire founder of PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX spends his quality time over the weekends with his five sons. While he hustles between managing Tesla and SpaceX over his weekdays, he still reserves his weekends entirely for his family.
#6 They Unplug
The modern digital era has made it impossible for humans to completely disconnect over the weekend. Work life manages to creep into the weekends of people and induces stress even while not at work. Our entire lives are now spent in front of screens – TV, Mobile devices, Computers and so forth. Unplugging from these energy-draining technology is very essential for a healthy and happy weekend.
Although catching up on little of E-mail won’t do too much harm, successful people avoid sticking in front of their screens even during the weekends. Bill Gates preferred his weekends watching his daughter ride horses and being a bit mellow over the weekends. Malcolm Gladwell, The New York Times’ Best-selling Author, likes to spend his weekends sipping tea, reading Newspaper and taking a stroll across the beach.
- Read More: 10 Habits Of The Highly Successful People
What do you think about the way successful people prefer to spend their weekends? Shout out your thoughts and comments regarding these weekend tips from successful people below.
8 comments on “6 Ways Successful People Spend their Weekend – #3 is Amazing”
Hi Srikanth,
Successful people do not waste their time. They only only waste time where they are interested to do! Without right approach and correct plan there is no success!
May be i am not too lazy. I wake up early morning too on weekend and do my work according to plan. ( I am gonna successful. Ha Ha)
However, well written article Srikanth. Keep it up!
Have a nice weekend too (like as me)
Very interesting article indeed. Reserving weekends entirely for family is good. Spending time for interest is also good.
Thats an inspiring read Srikanth. I have heard of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg too who wakes up as early as 4.30 AM even on weekends.
Hey Sangeetha. Yes, Sheryl Sandberg too is one of the early risers. Thank you for your comment.
That’s so inspiring, Shrikanth. This post has inspired me to work more and wish less. I’ve seen many people complaining about life, financial conditions. etc. According to them life is unfair, little do they understand that they’re not investing time in making their life purposeful. This article has been written with great observation. Thumbs up!
Hey Harshita,
That is some good thought on working more and wishing less. Thank you for your lovely comment and glad that you find this article helpful.
Hi Srikanth,
Great post. I really enjoyed reading and so very true. I have never met someone successful that doesn’t hustle and make the most out of every single day. They constantly live life to it’s fullest and plan every constantly whether they are doing business or living life. Thanks you for the great read and make it a great weekend!
Thanks Srikanth for this article. This time, I felt I was reading some article from Robin Sharma. It’s good to see some non-technical article on this blog. It’s really inspiring