Life Design 101: What Do I Want My Weekend To Look Like?

Posted on May 21, 2009 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Life Design

LifeDesign101 When I realized my life wasn’t what I wanted it to be (see “Hauled Up Short”), I knew I would have to make some changes. I decided to sit down and figure out what I wanted to do in my non-work time, from conscious choice, rather than from expectations or habit. I want to consciously live my life, rather than having the decision made for me.

What I Don’t Want To Do On Weekends

When I started thinking about this, I could only come up with things I didn’t want to do. But it was a good starting place.

No housework. I don’t want to spend my weekends doing routine housework.
No shopping. I don’t enjoy shopping, and I don’t want to give up my Saturdays fighting the lines at the grocery or discount stores.
No blog writing. I don’t want to give up my chunks of creative time to doing things I could have gotten done during the week.
No big meals. I am fine with cooking one meal that takes a bit longer on a weekend. However, I don’t want to spend my days in the kitchen.
No work. I don’t want to be doing work on my weekends. This doesn’t just include my employer’s work, but also doing technical learning or growing my own businesses.

What I Do Want To Do

Once I decided what had to go, it left me open to dream. I figured out what I would like to do more of, and constructed my ideal days:

Saturday

Saturday would start out with a creative writing session, followed by a weekly women’s group I attend. The afternoon would be given over to family time, an outing, or perhaps just puttering around the house. Saturday night would be our household game night, either a board game, or Wii games we can all play together.

Sunday

Sunday would be a day of rest. I would spend time doing spiritual work, joyfully and gladly. I would be able to relax, read, spend time with my family, and recharge my batteries. Ideally it would be away from the computer, phone and television as well.

Now the question becomes “how do I get there from here?”