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How to use weekends for mental health
- sokoloff 5y agoI enjoy family weekends; I enjoy short trips over a weekend sometimes. But the weekends I really treasure are when I can go full nerd-out on some electronics or electronics/firmware or pure software side-project. Even if it’s just a 3 hour uninterrupted block (both not interrupted but also knowing that you won’t be) each day, that’s pure bliss. No Jira tickets, no sprint stand ups, no estimates, no slack brush-brushes, no zoom calls, just nerding out.
- prtkgpt 5y agoAnd no notifications!
- icedchai 5y agoDo you remember when work used to be like this? I remember some of my early startup jobs. No Jira or Agile ritual BS.
- mrslave 5y agoI like the ticketing system for tracking issues, especially with a distributed team. But especially with bigger corporations it gets so damn tiresome. I crave a Kanban-only system and software leaders who just talk to their developers to inform/influence what's to do next. Perhaps this is just grass-is-greener daydreaming. Is anybody doing this/how does it perform? Perhaps I am just so thoroughly conditioned by agile-everywhere-all-the-time and I can't think pass it and this is a very bad idea?
- lumost 5y agoHubSpot has this type of culture. Engineers would work on problem areas or projects. They would be empowered to communicate progress in whatever way the team thought was best. The vast majority of teams didn’t use stand-ups, scrum, or agile.
- glouwbug 5y agoDo you work for hubspot
- prtkgpt 5y agoI am interviewing for hubspot as well currently and I also read the books. Interesting !!
- icedchai 5y agoThe book ("Disrupted") was a real laugh. After reading it, I wouldn't want to work there.
- glouwbug 5y agoWait, isn’t that the book where the guy stayed there for like 2 years just to log all the crazy stuff that happened so he could write a book? Weren’t people like having sex in the company beds during work hours?
- icedchai 5y agoYes, that's it. Some crazy stuff happened and many people "graduated" from the company. Perhaps a Hubspot employee can tell us how true it all was!
- lumost 5y agoI used to, I switched away a few years ago - but do miss the engineering autonomy.
- ammo1662 5y agoCan't agree more. Sometimes I just want to build and customize some models alone. Lego or Gundam or some ancient ship. No phone calls, no friends, families and socializing. Even though I love coding, but sometimes I do feel exhausted. Don't even want to touch the keyboard, gamepad or any electronics.
- anyfoo 5y agoYeah, I noticed that I'm clearly in different "modes" in my free time and act accordingly. Sometimes I really only want to lie on the couch and consume. The thought of my electronics projects then seems exhausting. Sometimes I really want to be productive and stimulated, then I work on those projects or read a math or EE textbook, and the thought of just sitting there and consuming seems excruciatingly boring. The key aspect is to recognize that none of those phases will last forever, and cycling through those various hobbies gives variety.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- after_care 5y agoIf you think you mental health is something you can do two days a week you're on the path towards stress related disease and burn out.
- markus_zhang 5y agoA lot of the stress comes from not wanting to do boring stuffs in weekends, so yeah I actually hate weekends from time to time.
- prtkgpt 5y agoI agree with you on that; specially after the lockdown & wfh combo. I started a cricket team in my town just because of this. Best thing I have done for my physical fitness!
- vorpalhex 5y agoDon't do boring things! Go build a robot in your backyard. Learn to sail a boat. Take up martial arts.
- vorpalhex 5y ago> Out of 52 weekends, I didn’t work more than 30% of them. Assuming you are working a standard Mon - Fri, the correct amount of weekends to be working is 0. There is some tradeoff point if you make overtime and you need the money. If you are salaried, then just say no. I occasionally get asked to work a late night or a weekend. It's never a real emergency - nobody is blocked, it isn't software that impacts live users, etc. It's just scheduling fails by some middle manager somewhere. My answer is always the same: "Oh, sorry, I can't. Already scheduled."
- prtkgpt 5y agoI agree with you! I hope to reduce this to 0%.
- escapedmoose 5y agoAbsolutely. 5 days per week is already too much work. Anyone asking more of you has little to no concern for your personal well-being.
- singron 5y agoThis is one of those reminders that most of the stuff you read on the internet is written by abnormal people. In this case, it's someone claiming they "only" work 30% of weekends and regularly go to 5am meetings explaining why you should have the abundant work-life balance they achieve.
- LesZedCB 5y agoexactly. Manufacturing Consent applies to more than just mainstream news media.
- prtkgpt 5y agoI think you’re so right. It is an achievement than just a reward. I had to be disciplined to accommodate my sleep routine and be productive. The goal is not to think about work at all during “not the working hours” but how?.
- prtkgpt 5y ago
- rufius 5y agoDon’t work weekends. Don’t read the news. Spend time with loved ones. Make art or enjoy art.
- Markoff 5y agobetter advice than whole long article though how should I find out about important news without reading the news? like what are current COVID/travel restrictions etc? it's easier to just check news site once a day than check dozens of gov sites
- unmole 5y agoWhich part of the world are you in where there are Covid restrictions changing on a day to day basis?
- Markoff 5y agoEurope, there were almost weekly changes through the pandemic and you still failed to answer my question where I will find this information without checking the news, I find much easier check daily the news than check them once a week trying to catch up what I missed in whole week looking for some summary, that's not what I would call efficient use of my time
- stefandesu 5y agoI think what they meant was not reading news on the weekend. You will still get updates about those things during the week.
- Markoff 5y agothat would be reasonable but there still can be important news on weekend and it takes literally seconds to skim through headlines
- 5y ago
- safetytrick 5y agoHow to write platitudes for clicks.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- xwdv 5y agoYou work 5 days a week and just to take two days off for your mental health and recovery so you can go back and do it again the next week.
- rdtwo 5y agoI remember when I had weekends it was marvelous. Now I have a kid and there are no weekends or free nights
- czbond 5y agoIt gets worse ;) Sorry,I couldn't resist. I've heard it eases around 14
- rdtwo 5y agoI suppose being a single parent… that sounds like hell
- Markoff 5y agowhy no free nights? I put kids to sleep around 19:30 and then I have free evening mostly just watching TV shows/movies and surfing to rest up until midnight, heck I even enjoy weekends with them, anything beats work
- rdtwo 5y agoI put mine too bed, clean up then I’m too tired to move and back at it at 530
- arkades 5y agoTl;dr don’t work on the weekends, do something that makes you happy I have no idea how such shallow faff got on the front page.
- giraffe333 5y agoYou can't "catch up" on sleep. The only way to get enough sleep is to have a schedule that you stick to. It's ok to think about work off hours. Write down your thoughts, do some meditation practice to learn to let the work thoughts flow by and notice them, but let them go.
- czbond 5y agoI'd hate to need breaks from my work for mental sanity. Sucks to be normal.
- Markoff 5y agoSaved you a click, these are only advices among the ballast: > For starters, try to disconnect from work and social media. Dedicate some time to yourself and do something that makes you happy, whether it’s reading, going for a walk, or spending time with family and friends. You can also use the weekend to catch up on sleep. > That’s why professionals recommend taking a break from work at least one day each week. And not just any kind of break — a real break. That means no checking email, no working on projects, and no worrying about what’s happening at the office.
- throwaway22032 5y agoAlternatively, use the entire week for health. Mental and physical. Everything in moderation.
- coldtea 5y agoIn other words: how we don't even have weekends anymore.
- omgmajk 5y ago> You can also use the weekend to catch up on sleep. Even if I agree with some of this article, this quote is just blatantly false. You can't catch up on sleep.
- Takatakataka 5y ago