Those who were forced to switch to remote work because of the quarantine definitely felt all the pain of freelancing. To make things clear, the pain of freelancing is when you don’t understand whether you have any personal time to relax while you are in a working environment twenty-four hours a day. So, is there still such a thing as a weekend, or has it faded into oblivion and doesn’t exist anymore?
The Internet Protocol
At first glance, universal truths are clear to everyone. You need to wake up and go to bed at the same time as before the whole self-isolation thing started. At the beginning of your working day at home, you need to change into somewhat formal clothes (forget the pajamas) and make your bed. You also need to work at your desk or any table in general. And yes, even the kitchen table will be okay.
The reality, in turn, makes its own adjustments. Because of the amount of work you have to do, it’s easy to skip lunch, which is replaced by a sandwich in the hand free from using the keyboard of your laptop. Finishing work at usual 6 o’clock in the evening is becoming more difficult, and leaving work tasks aside for a while is almost impossible. Either way, everyone knows that you are at home, so what excuses can there be?
The Internet Protocol
With the weekend, things are exactly the same. It’s either your boss asking you to make time for a new project, or you having nothing else to do except work. Be that as it may, you must not forget about the importance of the weekend. If you ignore it for a long time and do not find time to switch to yourself from work, then recovering from burnout and emotional exhaustion will take much more time than just two days a week.
Why does having weekends in quarantine matter?
Right now, we are all in a state of stress and uncertainty. Nobody knows how long this forced self-isolation will last, what human end economic losses will there be, and how society and the world around us will change. We had to cancel a lot of planned stuff or even abandon some inveterate habits. Some of us even had to rethink their worldview and mindset.
Our biological rhythms are something that we all can now maintain in a normal state. In fact, this would significantly help our body as these rhythms have adapted to our schedule over the years. Usually, this schedule had a fixed weekend, during which we could forget about work and take care of our own stuff.
If you steal the usual “five days of work and two days of rest” rhythm from your body, it will automatically add another stress factor to your overall anxiety. Pretty soon, this can turn into a nervous breakdown and exhaustion. Therefore, if you decide to work on a weekend (earlier it was more an exception for you, not a rule, remember), evaluate all the risks for your body and openly ask yourself a question, “Is it really worth it?” And don’t forget that planning a vacation is also quite a work task. Without days off, creativity and attentiveness are affected in pretty bad ways, leading to a decrease in the quality and speed of the work done.
Alternative weekends
If you can’t refuse to work on the weekends due to financial reasons, you need to optimize your work. The main rule of stable rest is to end the cycle of one working week and begin the next cycle of the working week. This way, you will not have the “Groundhog Day” effect and confusion in days in the morning. If you do not have the opportunity to rest at least one day a week, you need to come up with your own rituals of rest that can be combined with work. It can be an evening cleanup (if it brings you pleasure), a longer walk with your dog, a workout, a glass of wine, or relaxation in a hot bath. The main thing is that it is not an everyday affair. It is advisable that you wait and dream about this all week and then enjoy the process.
