14 Things Successful People Do On Weekends

1. Make time for family and friends. This is especially important for those who don’t spend much time with their loved ones during the week.

2. Exercise. Everyone needs to do it, and if you can’t work out 4 to 5 days during the workweek, you need to be active on weekends to make up for some of that time.

4. Vacation. Getting away for the weekend provides a great respite from the grind of an intense week at work.

5.  Disconnect. The most successful people avoid e-mail for a period of time. If you don’t have a specific religious obligation of no-work time, taking Saturday night to mid-day Sunday off is a nice, ecumenical time that works for many people.”

6. Volunteer. The volunteer work provides a balance to the heavy analytical work you do all week and fulfills her need to be creative. This is a great way to network and to meet others with similar interests.

7. Avoid chores. Every weekend has a few have-to-dos, but you want these to take the minimum amount of time possible. Create a small window for chores and errands, and then banish them from your mind the rest of the time.

8. Plan. Planning makes people more effective, and doing it before the week starts means you can hit Monday ready to go, and means you’ll give clear directions to the people who work for you, so they will be ready to go, too.

9. Socialize. Humans are social creatures, and studies of people’s experienced happiness through the day finds that socializing ranks right up there, not too far down below sex. Go out with friends and family, or get involved in the local community.

10. Gardening/crafts/games/sports/cooking/cultural activities. This is especially important for those cooped up in an office all week. Theatre, opera and sporting events can also enrich one’s spirit, he adds.

11. Network. Networking isn’t an event for a successful person, it’s a lifestyle. Wherever they go and whatever they do, they manage to connect with new people.

12. Reflect. Truly successful people make time on weekends to appreciate what they have and reflect on their happiness and accomplishments.

13. Meditate. Classes and private instruction offer a bespoke approach to insight and peace of mind. 

14. Recharge. We live in a competitive world. Peak performance requires managing downtime, too–with the goal of really recharging your batteries. That’s how the most successful people get so much done.

Successful people know that time is too precious to be totally leisurely about leisure. You’re not going to waste that time by failing to think about what you’d like to do with it, and thus losing the weekend to TV, puttering, inefficient e-mail checking and chores. If you don’t have a busy workweek, your weekend doesn’t matter so much. But if you’re going from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, it certainly does.