I used to waste my entire weekend recovering from the work week - making these 8 changes helped me actually enjoy my days off

For years, I'd drag myself to Saturday morning like a zombie. My Venice Beach apartment would feel like a recovery ward, and I'd spend most of the day horizontal on the couch, scrolling through my phone with zero energy for anything meaningful.

By Sunday evening, I'd realize I'd accomplished nothing except binge-watching some series I couldn't even remember and eating takeout straight from the container.

The worst part? Monday would roll around and I'd feel like I hadn't rested at all.

Something had to change. I was burning weekend after weekend on recovery mode instead of actually living. So I started experimenting with small shifts in how I approached my days off.

Here's what actually worked.

1) I stopped treating Friday night like a finish line

I used to hit Friday evening and immediately crash. Order pizza, crack open a beer, collapse on the couch. It felt earned after a week of deadlines and client emails.

But here's what I didn't realize: I was programming my brain to associate the weekend with shutdown mode.

Research on behavioral patterns shows that how we end one cycle directly influences how we start the next. By treating Friday night as "finally, I can stop," I was setting up Saturday to be an extension of that exhaustion.

Now I do something small but intentional on Friday evenings. Sometimes it's organizing my desk for the week ahead. Sometimes it's a short walk around the neighborhood. The point isn't the activity itself but the message I'm sending: the weekend isn't for collapsing. It's for living differently.

2) I planned one anchor activity for Saturday morning

This changed everything.

Instead of letting Saturday unfold into a shapeless blob of time, I started scheduling one thing I genuinely looked forward to. For me, that became the farmers market.

Every Saturday morning, I'm up and out by 9am, walking through the stalls, talking to vendors I've gotten to know over the years, picking out produce for the week. It's not work. It's not a chore. It's something I actively enjoy.

The psychology here is simple: when you have something to look forward to, you're more likely to get up and start your day with momentum. That momentum carries through the rest of the weekend.

Your anchor doesn't have to be a farmers market. It could be a yoga class, a coffee shop ritual, a photography walk, whatever. The key is consistency and genuine enjoyment.

3) I stopped saying yes to things I didn't want to do

How many weekends did I waste going to events I didn't care about because I felt obligated?

Too many.

I'd agree to brunch plans with acquaintances, or say yes to helping someone move, or attend some party where I knew exactly three people. Then I'd spend the whole time wishing I was home, and afterward I'd feel drained rather than energized.

The breakthrough came when I realized that saying yes to everything was actually preventing me from saying yes to things that mattered. My weekends weren't mine anymore.

Now I'm selective. If it doesn't genuinely interest me or isn't for someone I care about, I politely decline. The people who matter understand. The ones who don't weren't really my people anyway.

4) I built in active recovery instead of passive recovery

This one took me a while to figure out because it seems counterintuitive.

When you're tired, your instinct is to do nothing. Lie down. Watch TV. Scroll. Let your brain go blank.

But I discovered that passive recovery doesn't actually restore energy. It just fills time.

Active recovery does something different. It's engaging in activities that require some presence but aren't taxing. For me, that's cooking or photography. My partner will tell you that Sunday afternoons often find me experimenting with some elaborate vegan dish, or I'm out with my camera capturing light along the beach.

These activities require enough focus that my work brain can't intrude, but they're not stressful. They're restorative in a completely different way than zoning out ever was.

The research on this is pretty clear. Activities that create a state of flow, where you're engaged but not anxious, are far more restorative than passive consumption of content.

5) I separated work space from weekend space

Working from home blurred every boundary I had.

My laptop lived on my kitchen table. Work emails were always accessible. There was no physical separation between "work Jordan" and "weekend Jordan."

So I created one. During the week, I work from coffee shops or my small home office setup. On weekends, those spaces are off limits. My laptop stays closed. My desk chair stays empty.

It sounds simple, but the psychological impact was massive. My brain learned that certain spaces meant certain things. When I wasn't in those spaces, I wasn't in work mode.

If you can't create physical separation, create temporal boundaries. Maybe your laptop doesn't open before noon on Saturdays. Maybe Sunday mornings are device-free. Whatever the boundary, make it clear and consistent.

6) I stopped scheduling social time like work meetings

I used to pack my weekends with social obligations, back to back, like I was optimizing my calendar for maximum human interaction.

Dinner with friends Friday. Brunch Saturday. Afternoon coffee Sunday. It looked like a full, rich life on paper.

In reality, it was exhausting.

I wasn't giving myself any breathing room between interactions. I wasn't allowing for spontaneity or solitude. I was treating my social life like a project to manage.

Now I leave space. Sometimes that means having only one social commitment per weekend. Sometimes it means none. And when I do see people, I'm actually present because I'm not already thinking about the next thing on the schedule.

Quality over quantity applies to friendships too.

7) I embraced the power of Sunday preparation

Sunday evening used to fill me with dread. The weekend was ending, Monday was approaching, and I felt completely unprepared for the week ahead.

Then I started using Sunday afternoons for light preparation. Not work, exactly, but setting myself up for a smoother Monday.

I'll do things like meal prep some basics for the week. Batch cook some grains and legumes. Review my calendar and decide what the week's priorities are. Lay out my clothes for Monday morning.

These small acts of preparation transformed my Sunday anxiety into Sunday confidence. I'm not scrambling Monday morning. I'm not starting the week in reactive mode.

And here's the thing: it doesn't feel like work because I'm choosing to do it. There's no pressure, no deadline. It's just me taking care of future me.

8) I let go of the idea that weekends had to be productive

This might be the most important one.

For years, I judged the quality of my weekend by what I accomplished. Did I finish that side project? Did I clean the apartment? Did I cross things off some imaginary weekend to-do list?

If the answer was no, I felt like I'd wasted my time.

But weekends aren't about productivity. They're about restoration, connection, and experiencing life beyond work metrics.

Some Sundays I do absolutely nothing of measurable value. I might spend the afternoon reading behavioral science journals on my balcony. I might take a long walk with no destination. I might just exist without achievement.

And that's not wasted time. That's living.

The moment I stopped judging my weekends by productivity standards, they became infinitely more enjoyable. I gave myself permission to just be, and that permission was the most valuable change of all.

Final thoughts

Your weekends are yours. They're not meant to be an extension of your work week, and they're not meant to be spent recovering from it.

They're meant to be lived.

These eight changes didn't happen overnight. I experimented, adjusted, and found what worked for me. Your version might look completely different, and that's exactly as it should be.

The key is being intentional about how you spend your time off instead of defaulting to exhaustion mode.

Start small. Pick one thing from this list and try it next weekend. See what happens.