While weekdays often pass in a blur of rushing from one thing to the next, weekends require a different mindset. It’s easy to lose track of time and watch these precious hours disappear into things you didn’t mean to do — watching a lot of TV, running errands, doing housework, etc.
In 168 Hours, I recommend instituting a family meeting at some point during the week to figure out at least one activity that everyone would enjoy doing over the weekend. Then chores and other things can fit in around that.
But how do you figure out what you’d like to do? I recently came across an intriguing site called Goby.com, which lets you type in what kind of activity you’re looking for (e.g. family fun), where you want to do it (e.g. NYC), and when (e.g. next weekend). Then it spits out a list of ideas.
Test-driving it for my family for this coming week, I found some obvious ones (take the elevator to the top of the Empire State Building) but also some lesser known sites, such as the Lower East Side Ecology Center, and ideas I wouldn’t have come up with (a tea ceremony in China town). There are some dud entries (Sydney’s Playground turns out to now be closed) but a big part of the problem of figuring out weekend activities is brainstorming a list. Goby at least takes care of that part for you, so you can weed down from there.