You know you're getting old when you'd rather do these 9 things on a Friday night

Now at 37, living in Vietnam with my wife and our baby, I've fully embraced this shift. And honestly? It's bloody liberating. There's something freeing about admitting that your idea of a perfect Friday night has changed from downing schooners at the pub to something entirely different.

So if you find yourself nodding along to these nine things, welcome to the club. We've got comfy chairs and decent wine, and we're all in bed by 10:30.

1) An early dinner followed by actual sleep

Remember when Friday night didn't even start until 10pm? When dinner at 6 was something only your parents did?

Yeah, those days are gone.

These days, I'm genuinely excited about eating at 6:30 and being horizontal by 9. There's no shame in it anymore. In fact, I've started to see it as a strategic victory. Why would I waste my Friday night fighting for a table at 8:30 when I could be fed, satisfied, and halfway through a solid night's sleep by then?

Last Friday, my wife and I had dinner at home by 6, put the baby down by 7:30, and we were both asleep before 10. I woke up Saturday morning feeling like a new person. That's worth more than any late night out.

The research backs this up too. Our sleep patterns shift as we age, and fighting against them just makes us miserable. Turns out, listening to your body isn't giving up on life. It's actually pretty smart.

2) Organizing your home instead of your social calendar

I used to think people who got excited about reorganizing their garage or sorting out the spare room had given up on living.

Now? Give me a Friday evening with some good storage solutions and I'm a happy man.

There's something deeply satisfying about creating order from chaos. Maybe it's because so much of life feels out of our control, but you can control whether your bookshelf is organized by author or by color. (It's by author, obviously. I'm not a monster.)

I spent last month's Friday nights gradually working through our apartment in Saigon, creating better systems for everything. Files organized. Cables managed. Kitchen cupboards that actually make sense. And you know what? It felt better than most nights out I had in my twenties.

The psychology here is real. A tidy environment reduces cortisol levels and improves mental clarity. Your Friday night organizing session is actually an investment in your well-being. That's not boring. That's bloody efficient.

3) Staying in to learn something new

Friday nights used to be about tuning out. Now they’re about tuning in — to someone else’s thoughts, ideas, and stories.

These days, I often spend my Friday nights reading. Not because I’m avoiding the world, but because I want to understand it better. My younger self would have thought staying home with a book was boring. My current self thinks it’s a privilege.

Something changes as you get older. Reading stops being a task and starts becoming a doorway. You’re not doing it to look smart or tick a box — you’re doing it because it nourishes you.

Whether it’s philosophy, psychology, fiction, or memoir, reading becomes a quiet rebellion against distraction. While the world scrolls and shouts, you get to slow down and think.

4) Quality time with your partner that doesn't involve other people

Group dinners were fun. Double dates had their place. But nothing beats just being with your person without the social performance.

My wife and I have this thing now where Friday night is sacred couple time. No friends. No extended family. No work talk. Just us, usually cooking something together, maybe watching something we've both been keen on, and actually talking.

When you're navigating life with a baby, running businesses, and managing all the other chaos, these undistracted hours together become precious. You remember why you chose this person. You reconnect without having to project the "happy couple" image for an audience.

The research on relationship satisfaction shows that quality time trumps quantity every time. And Friday night, when you're both finally done with the week, might be the highest quality time you can get.

5) Actually finishing a book in one sitting

There's a special kind of luxury in reading an entire book in one evening.

Not scrolling through your phone between chapters. Not checking work emails. Not half-watching a show while you read. Just you and a book, start to finish, in one unbroken session.

I did this a few weeks ago with a book about Southeast Asian history. Started it at 7pm, finished it at midnight. My younger self would have called this a wasted Friday. My current self calls it one of the best nights I've had in months.

Deep reading activates parts of your brain that fragmented, distracted reading doesn't touch. It improves empathy, reduces stress, and gives you something that social media scrolling never will: actual completion. You finished something. That matters more than you'd think.

6) Meal prepping for the week ahead

Alright, I know how this sounds. Meal prep on a Friday night is peak old person behavior.

But hear me out.

Spending two hours on Friday evening preparing food for the week means I don't have to think about lunch or dinner for the next five days. That's mental energy freed up. That's time saved. That's not scrambling to figure out what to eat when I'm already hungry and making terrible decisions.

Plus, there's something meditative about the process. Chopping vegetables, portioning out meals, organizing containers. It's productive downtime. You're doing something useful while your mind wanders.

I'll take that over standing in a crowded pub making small talk any day.

7) Working on a personal project that actually matters to you

Friday night used to be about escaping work. Now it's about working on things that actually mean something.

I run websites with my brothers, and some of my best content ideas come from Friday evening sessions when I'm not under pressure to perform or meet deadlines. I can experiment. I can explore ideas that might not work. I can create without the weight of expectation.

Whether it's a side business, creative writing, building something with your hands, or any other project you care about, Friday night gives you uninterrupted time to make progress. No one's emailing you. No one's expecting you to be anywhere. It's pure creative space.

The shift here is from consumption to creation. From passive entertainment to active building. That's not getting old. That's getting intentional.

8) Going to bed early enough to wake up for Saturday morning activities

The old way: stay out until 2am, write off Saturday until noon, spend the afternoon recovering.

The new way: asleep by 10pm, awake at 6am, entire Saturday available for whatever you want.

I used to think people who went to bed early on Friday were missing out on life. Now I realize they were just playing a longer game. You don't experience less by going to bed early. You experience more by having your full Saturday back.

Living in Saigon, Saturday mornings are incredible. The city's alive before the heat sets in, the markets are busy, and you can get so much done before most people are even awake. But only if you're not hungover and sleep-deprived from Friday night.

It's a trade-off, sure. But it's a trade-off that makes mathematical sense.

9) Enjoying silence and solitude instead of noise and crowds

This might be the biggest shift of all.

There was a time when silence felt uncomfortable. When being alone on a Friday night felt like failure. When you measured the quality of your evening by how many people were around you.

Now? Give me an empty apartment, no obligations, and just my own thoughts. That's not loneliness. That's luxury.

I spent last Friday evening sitting on our balcony, listening to the sounds of the city, thinking through some ideas for work, and just being present. No music. No podcast. No distraction. Just me and my thoughts.

My 25-year-old self would have been checking his phone every five minutes, worried he was missing out on something. My 37-year-old self knows that sometimes the best thing happening is absolutely nothing.

The constant stimulation of modern life means that silence has become rare. And rare things are valuable. Using your Friday night to reclaim it isn't antisocial. It's self-preservation.

The bottom line

Getting older changes your Friday nights. But it doesn’t make them smaller — it just makes them quieter, deeper, and more intentional.

You stop chasing noise and start craving meaning. You realize not every evening has to be memorable — some just need to be peaceful. You become more protective of your energy, and you spend it where it actually nourishes you.

Some people will call that boring. Let them. They’re still trying to prove they’re interesting. You’ve reached the point where you’d rather be content than look exciting.

The real sign of maturity isn’t that your Friday nights have changed — it’s that you no longer feel the need to apologize for it. You’ve stopped feeling like you should be somewhere else, doing something louder. You’ve made peace with the fact that your perfect evening might involve reading a book, sipping tea, and letting your mind wander wherever the words take you.

And honestly? That’s not getting old. That’s finally growing into yourself.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s Friday evening here in Saigon. I’ve got a book waiting — and I plan to fall asleep somewhere around page 42.

Living the dream.