After Friday's lunch-brake, millions of working individuals around the world are checking their office clocks counting the minutes before it is officially allowed for them to go home, relax with their family and friends and put their minds at ease. After all, it is weekend time! But wait, if you think of it again, I believe it slowly comes into focus that weekend time equals "free" time and "free" time means time for recreational activities. What a bummer!



You now seem disappointed to leave the office, which looks like a secure environment, and to be forced to go out, have fun, do shopping, meet people you haven't seen for at least a week, take the kids to that theme park you have promised at a moment of weakness, clean the house, do the laundry, organize the garage, join your sport club, watch the game from your special reserved seats, organize that barbecue everyone has been waiting for, and so on.

Well, I might have been carried away, since some of these activities cannot be considered recreational, but a lot of others, even if not included in this list, are. Before turning back to reenter your office premises, try to maintain your optimistic side alive and realize that yes, weekends are short, but they are still your chance to elude and experience in full the recreational activity of your choice.

You have been waiting for the right time to announce to your folks that you are ready to join your friends and begin those scuba diving lessons you wanted for so long. When you actually managed to convince them that you will be careful and that sharks cannot be found anywhere near your instructor's pool, you have to squeeze the classes into your busy weekend schedule and still manage to do all the other things you have been postponing for a while. Cut yourself some slack here!

You are an energetic individual that has lots of things to worry about during the week. Don't add to you worries the fact that you will not be able to go out with your female friend and help her select a new set of curtains to match her recently acquired living room leather couch. You hate promising and then breaking a promise, but if you are honest with yourself, your needs, and with your friend, it is more likely that she will forgive you this time.

Just don't make it a habit. What I am trying to say here is that you should put some priorities in your life and select which recreational activity to do when, depending on your needs and wants. You should not become an egoistic person that never considers other peoples' thoughts and feelings, but at the same time you should not forget that your own time is your own to invest where you see fit. Try to find the balance between what you need for yourself, what others need from you and what you want to succeed at the end of the day; much like the office deal you know how to handle. Guard your weekend time as your precious time to do the things you want the most.

Multitasking and over-committing yourself is a habit you should quit, since it is not healthy for you to always be on the run from errand to errand, visit to visit, promise to promise. Your weekends should be a time of relaxation, rejuvenation, and pleasure, and not a time for you to go crazy for the things you did not manage to complete in less than 48 hours! Nobody should blame you for investing in yourself. Even those who will attempt should know better. Teach them what it is like to lie down on Sunday night feeling confident with yourself and proud of weekend's recreational accomplishments.