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by fhrow4484 1362 days ago
> Your work matters. It’s okay to fight for it in your schedule.

Nice conclusion, but half of the solution in this article is to work "12:00 to 4:00 every Saturday"...

Does your work matter that much that you have to sacrifice every weekends?

My 2¢: fight harder to carve time during weekdays instead

2 comments

If... you're being intentional about your time/schedule, do 'weekends' matter as much?

EDIT: I can understand 'kids' aspect. Outside of that, if I'm doing the things I want to do at the times I want to do them, the notion of 'weekend=do_what_i_want' isn't as compelling. I try to schedule in things I want to do when I want, weekends be damned.

If you have children weekends are incredibly important.
Only if you are unavailable on week days.
Even if you’re available weekdays, the kids are not (they’re in school)
My kids are home at 1:30. When they are older, 3:00 twice a week, and 1:30 thrice a week. No homework. So there’s a sizable amount of hours every day to spend time with them.

Blanket statements like GP made are not true for everybody.

That's a good point. My daughter is in daycare so I could take her home anytime I want if I'm home.

If I (and my partner) had the opportunity to work less during weekdays and more in the weekends I'm still not sure we would do it. There is something mental about it for me at least.

Besides she's a nurse, so she works every third weekend anyway. In that case weekends become really important for me.

Yes, weekends matter a lot because it's your time with family, leisure and friends. Weekends matter if your life is not owned by the company where you work.
Weekends only matter as much as you argue here if your company owns your ass 9-5 Mon-Fri (plus commute, sometimes). If you're able to be more flexible, it's nice to go out when everyone else is working.

I understand your point, though, I work max 30-35 hours a week, often on weekends, and spend as much time as I can with my son and wife.

> Weekends only matter as much as you argue here if your company owns your ass 9-5 Mon-Fri (plus commute, sometimes). If you're able to be more flexible, it's nice to go out when everyone else is working.

I'd adjust that to "If you and your family and most of your friends are able to be more flexible". I went back to a mostly conventional schedule after I realised that while I was doing a lot that I wanted to on my own, spending more time with friends was a higher priority. I can see that if most of your friends are academics or similar then it could work better (indeed I found that in this remote work era it's become easier to meet people during "work hours", so if that sticks then maybe it'll be time to reevaluate).

Aside from kids: it's much easier to meet friends who have a 9-5 schedule on weekends
> do 'weekends' matter as much?

I guess I would be fine if I was trading those 4 hours of freetime I normally would get on Saturday for 4 hours on a weekday. But that doesn't seem to be what's being suggested.

Also, given the nature of how our days are organized in society, there tend to be events that happen on the weekends that do not happen on week days to accommodate people's work schedules - concerts in the park, community events, social events, etc. so moving some of your work to the weekends will mean you could miss out on those.

I think it really means fight hard to get the time, and choosing any time in particular doesn’t matter, weekend or weekday is irrelevant, it is just an agreement with yourself and those close to you that those times are reserved, a bit like sleep at say 11pm to 7am is non negotiable (unless you choose to).