Use The Weekend To Build The Life You Want

I’m going to base this article on one premise: Time allocation is the only thing that matters. If you master time, you will master life success.

I’ve built a successful freelancing career while working towards my Bachelor’s degree by working on my business outside of the time I spend on school. I’ve been working towards building up my resume as I transition towards a professional career — and it doesn’t hurt that I earn a little in the process.

Let me preface this by saying that I have been very lucky throughout my entire journey; I didn’t have many responsibilities outside of school. I was fortunate to have the free time to build up this life.

But that doesn’t mean that this article is solely for the ones with all the time in the world.

The principles I’ve learned are useful to anybody, so I hope that you’ll take them to heart.

Let’s get to it.

Do one thing for your future self.

I’m sure you have goals. You probably have them written down on a sticky note somewhere.

You probably also have a to-do list to make you feel extra productive. It feels good to look back on your to-do list and see all the tasks you’ve ticked off for the day.

But let me ask you this: What are you really doing? Are the tasks on your to-do list based on future goals, or were they added to give you the feeling and illusion of productivity?

Stepping back, I noticed that a lot of my daily tasks were on the list to make me feel good about myself. They were simple, easy to accomplish, and did nothing for my future.

I mean, what the heck does “respond to Alexis’ email” have to do with my future business goals? Very little, I presume.

So, my challenge is to always do one hard thing dedicated to my future self.

Whether it’s professional, social, or health-related, that one hard thing is a non-negotiable that I have to do today.

It might seem like a small step, but if you do it every day, think about how much closer you’d be to your dream life 365 days from now. Even if you were only to take on this challenge during the weekend, that’s still 104 tasks (2 tasks for 52 weeks) crossed off your dream life checklist.

One hard task a day.

Work with time (and the weekend)

Time is the one thing that everyone equally has. No matter who you are, you will only ever have 24 hours in a day.

It’s tempting to jam-pack everything into one day. It’s tempting to set up challenges and systems where you could immediately see impact and results.

But if you were to extend your timeframes to a week, month, or even a year, then suddenly, the goal not only becomes more attainable, but you also would have built the processes and systems required to overcome the next challenge.

In short: Don’t fall in love with the goals; focus on building systems. Systems give you the time you need to achieve whatever you want in life.

Let’s use fitness and weight loss as an example.

Let’s say you give yourself 30 days to lose 30 pounds. Sounds like a fun and rewarding challenge, no? It’s certainly doable, but that doesn’t mean that you should do it. The drastic change in lifestyle and diet would mean that you’re very likely to gain the weight back once the challenge is over. In that case, there’s not much point in taking on the challenge in the first place.

Extend your timeframe further to 180 days, and you’re well on your way to building a fitness habit that’ll last you a lifetime. By the six-month mark, going to the gym and eating healthier would feel as natural as taking a daily shower.

The 150-day difference won’t mean much in the context of the rest of your life.

Sacrifice

Well, duh.

Our 24-hour daily limit is constricting. I mean, how are you expected to work a 9–5, feed yourself, spend time with your family, work out, and relax in 24 hours?

Here’s the secret: you don’t have to do that every day. The point I’m trying to make here is sacrifice.

I heard this quote that goes, “ Work, Sleep, Family, Fitness, or Friends: Pick 3.” It basically means that you can only ever have three things out of those five in life, and that’s true for many people.

So, if you’re planning to build a business or get fitter on the weekends, you’ll probably have to give up friends and family. It’s a difficult ask, I know — but it’s necessary if you really want to build your dream life.

Kobe Bryant, for example, was notorious for cutting out friends and sleep from his life. He’d wake up at 3 am, work out, take his kids to school, work out again, have lunch and recover, work out again, watch some game film, work out again, then get to bed by 10 pm.

That was his daily routine. He chose work, family, and fitness over everything else. And it paid off.

Look, I know it sucks. But if you want to build the life you want, you will need to make some sacrifices.

Originally published at https://monasticspaces.com on June 21, 2023.