Working on the weekends

Sometimes, I like to work on the weekends.

It feels like a dirty secret admitting that because it seems like there’s a lot of shame around working on the weekends when you’re self-employed. But the truth is, sometimes I want to work on the weekend.

Sometimes, I like to make the most of being self-employed and do certain things on weekdays when it’s generally quieter. And then I catch up work on the weekends when everyone else is out and about.

For example, my partner and I decided to take a spontaneous trip to Ikea on Friday this week. Ikea is hell on earth on weekends or during the school holiday so we’d put off a trip for months. As most kids went back to school this week after the summer holidays, we decided to make the most of our flexible schedules and go on a weekday.

Our Ikea visit ended up taking up most of the day. It’s about a 45 minute drive each way from our house, and then we spent a couple of hours in the shop followed by lunch; not in Ikea sadly as they didn’t have any plant based meatballs or chips. I know, unheard of.

By the time we got home it was around 3pm, and by the time I’d unpacked and played around with everything I’d bought I felt too tired to do any work. So today, a Sunday, I’m catching up on work, and I don’t feel guilty about it because I got to take Friday off work.

Sometimes I prefer working on weekends because fewer people are working. And this means there’s less people interrupting me. I can really get in the zone and focus on my work. I’m always more productive on the weekends.

There will be some days when I wake up and just don’t feel like working at all. Maybe I’ve had a bad night of sleep or I feel unwell. Maybe I don’t feel motivated or I’m unable to concentrate. And as long as I haven’t got a looming deadline or a meeting scheduled in, I’m able to say “not today” and instead I’ll catch up on work at the weekend.

We need to stop shaming people for working weekends. We don’t know the bigger picture. It’s not always about over-working or hustle culture. Sometimes it just feels right.