Well, it has been a week. I’m happy I took my day to go see the cherry blossoms in Washington DC. They are moving past peak this weekend, and we have a pretty full weekend anyway. Time keeps passing. It’s good to seize opportunities when they are there, even if they take some effort.
My column over at Medium this week looks at the virtues of not sleeping in on the weekends.
For me, for a great many years, it was challenging to sleep in. When I did (because my husband and I would trade off on weekends) I often had a sleep debt that I needed to pay off from middle-of-the-night wake-ups.
These days, though, everyone is sleeping through the night (thank goodness). At least during the week, I almost always wake up when my alarm goes off at 6:30 a.m. Since I know from time-tracking that my sleep set point is 7.4 hours/day, if I am in bed with the lights out by 11 p.m., I will get that amount of sleep almost every night.
That means it is possible to hit the weekend without a sleep debt. And sure enough, if I get into bed close to 11 p.m. on weekends, I’m popping up right around 6:30 a.m.
Especially for those with older kids, being awake early on weekends — while feeling well-rested — opens up a lot of possibilities for extended personal time. So it’s worth thinking about whether there’s anything you might like to do with these hours. You can do stuff and not interfere with family weekend activities.
Speaking of family weekend activities, we’re going to see the Harry Potter exhibit at the Franklin Institute this weekend.
I have been working on the camp spreadsheet. It is almost done — I have two more weeks I plan to fill in based on people’s requests and then I am declaring this project finished.
My Before Breakfast podcast this week looked at such topics as how to Plan for Distracted Days, and the virtues of not texting while moving (not just driving!).
In case you missed it, the Best of Both Worlds podcast this week on retreats was really fun! I listened to it twice (and given that I was there for the recording I think that’s saying something!).
I finished working through the copy-edits on Tranquility by Tuesday. This was an occasion to see which words I use too often. Well, not that often, but you are going to notice if people use the word “poignant” or “frenetic” more than twice in a manuscript. I was using the “find” function a lot and replacing. I also read many passages out loud because making sure a manuscript can easily be read out loud is one of the best ways to make sure it isn’t clunky or verbose (another word that shouldn’t be used too frequently).
I used the Libby app to get Malibu Rising from my library, so perhaps I will read that this weekend, though my phone is acting up, automatically returning to the top of the screen when I scroll down. Very annoying. I guess that is one way to reduce screen time!
The Harry Potter exhibit was terrific (the gift shop was dangerous, but we all knew it would be…) And thank you for the inspiration to plan a Vermont retreat this spring!
I am glad to hear that! We are spending a few days in Philadelphia over April vacation, and that is my daughter’s top priority.
Ooh good topic about weekend mornings. I do sometimes like to sleep in those mornings since I get up so early the rest of the week (sleeping in means getting up with the kids at 7ish). But i can see the value of getting some quiet me time on weekend mornings as well.
The fact that you listened to retreats twice … well maybe we should try hosting one!
Definitely all in for a BOBW retreat! And would be happy to help organize one, if you wanted some reader pitch-in on logistics.
Loved the retreats episode. Fortunately, a chance for a retreat came up for me and my friend. She would come tomorrow and stay over, and leave on Sunday evening. We will be staying at my house itself. Having a teenager and no small kids makes it possible. The intention is long walks, and bird watching. We have many exotic birds where I live. So hoping it will be as nice as you and Sarah had. 😃
I enjoyed your article on Medium! Very good point that we can get stuff done at those times if wanted. On the weekends sometimes I now feel like I am hanging around all morning waiting for my kids to wake up, so we can do a family activity. I could actually be doing something for myself between 8 and 10 a.m.
If I get out of bed, my kid gets up, so I stay in bed awake as long as possible, until he comes to get me, then we snuggle a bit. Otherwise it’s demands for French toast, tv, video games, for an hour or two befor my husband even wakes up to share parenting. But it’s nice to lay in bed and do nothing; I don’t get a lot of quiet time and I need a lot of it. I should read a book on my phone or something, but I just started reading How To Do Nothing, which pushes back in this idea if always optimizing and increasing productivity,