Ep 204 | A Weekend Routine that Leads to Success

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off podcast where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it today. I want to talk about weekend routines. We're oftentimes talking about our weekday routines, what we do in life, what we do in health, what we're doing in business and the habits that we're creating there, I want to spend some time talking about weekend. And the reason this came about for me, a few weeks back, I had somebody that asked me, hey Brian, what do you do on the weekends? You know, how do you enjoy your weekends? But more specifically, what do you do on the weekends to set yourself up for success as you roll into the next week? And, you know, I have so many routines Uh, it was actually a tough question to answer because there's lots of things I do on my weekends. I just was frankly kind of unaware as to the habits or the regularity of which I'm doing certain things. And I, I want to share these things with you in hopes that maybe 1 or 2 or 3 are things that you can incorporate into your respective weekends to A, make for a better weekend and B, again, set yourself up for success. As you roll into the next week. So here are some things that I am purposeful around that really helped me in terms of enjoying the weekend and setting myself up for success. So first and foremost, I think we all have a tendency to do this on weekends. I really, really aim to relax, truly aim to relax. Now why? Odds are I just came off a pretty challenging week. I'm usually pushing myself like, like all of us listening to The No Days Off Podcast, we're probably pushing ourselves quite hard during the week. You've earned a break and I believe I've earned a break. So I try to relax, which also means I do try to catch up on some extra sleep. I'm not necessarily lying around or napping, though that will happen from time to time. Instead, I am trying to sleep in a slight bit more or even go to bed earlier So as to get a few more hours in over the course of Friday night and Saturday night. So relax, catch up on some extra sleep. In addition, over the weekend, try to do this during the week quite a bit, but I especially aim to on the weekend, get outside. I gotta be outside. You've gotta be outside. Outside sunlight, just outside environment. Brings a different energy. I know that for many of you listening right now, you're thinking, well, it's really freaking cold where I'm at. You know, I don't live in Arizona like you, Brian. And I would say, okay, cool. Still get outside. Now you may not stay outside for hours like I will do because it's 60 degrees here and it's manageable, but just getting outside and having that fresh air cold air for many of you, just the environment, you know, the, just the outside smells and feelings is energized. It will energize you. Get outside on your weekends, make it, be purposeful around that. On that note, if you're outside, move around and break a sweat. I believe weekends are great opportunities to push yourself physically maybe even a bit more than you do during the weekdays because you have a little bit more time. So I aim to push myself physically, but even go a little bit harder than I do during the week because the time allowed for it. I'm not on a time crunch needing to say, get to my office or get on a phone call or whatever it may be. So get outside, but move and break a sweat and push yourself physically. Next, in terms of having a successful weekend and setting myself up for progress and success in the next week. I aim to eliminate technology, especially my phone, on weekends. Many of you that I interact with personally, you'll find, you probably know that I'm not as easy to connect with on the weekends. That is by design. I put my phone down quite a bit for hours, if not an entire day at a time. It's a break. I'm trying to reset, reset, reset my mind and getting away from the phone does that. Now, before I eliminate the technology, especially my phone, I actually take some time on Saturdays to respond to missed texts and missed phone calls that I had in the previous week. Not all phone calls and texts need to be responded to. They're not all that important, but some of them are in fact important. They're from people that matter to me. And so I aim to tackle those that I didn't get to during the week. I really aim to do that on Saturday. It's because I want to get back to people, but it also relieves a bit of stress for me because I am the type of person that thinks about how I need to get back to so-and-so. And so I set a time, I set aside time on Saturday to make up for those missed calls, those missed texts. Once I've tackled that though, weekends I think are made for spending focused time with the people in your world that matter most. For many of you, that's your friends, your social circle. For me, it's my kids and my wife. Spend focused time with the people that matter most. Now I'm going to, I'm going to stop here real quick because I've gone through 5 or 6 things. I want you to recognize that I've mentioned relaxing and catching up on some sleep. And getting outside and, and breaking a sweat and eliminating technology, spending time with people that matter most. All of these things, they all drive my energy or reenergize me, I should say. So what you'll find is, as I continue to run through this list, just wanted to point out that rejuvenation is a huge part of my weekend. The next thing, This is something I like to do. Some of you may not think it's necessary for you, but for me, um, again, it, it does rejuvenate me a bit. Uh, I aim to organize something in my life, in my world that's been a mess for some time, something that's been weighing on me. It could be organize my desk. It could be organize the bag that I bring with me every day. It could be organize the garage or the cars or whatever it may be. I think the weekend allows for some time for me to clean up something that's been weighing on me. And so I spend focused time on the weekends doing that. Now those first 7 or 8 things, uh, are things I'll do regularly on, on the weekend to enjoy the weekend. The next steps I'm going to go through though, are how to set myself up for a successful week. Recently, uh, on a recent episode, we talked about the 3-1 planning strategy that I use each and every day, choosing the 3 most important tasks on my to-do list and circling them, and then starring asterisk, you know, by the most, uh, the one thing that absolutely must get done that day. Well, Sunday afternoons are made for going through my 3-1 for Monday. So I look at my list and I start thinking about my work week, and I think, what are the 3 most important things that that must get done starting with Monday? And what's the one absolute must-do? I will then review next week's calendar. You know, I have my 3-1 in mind. I'm going to review next week's calendar. And I actually have a, you know, what I call a cancel and reduce party. I have a cancel and reduce party. I will look at my calendar and I will ask myself, what on my calendar in the upcoming week can I in fact cancel? What appointments can I cancel? What time blocks can I cancel? What can I cancel? Now, odds are what I'm canceling probably doesn't align with the 3-1, the 3 most important and the 1 must-do. And that's why it's getting canceled. So I will cancel those things. Maybe it's a meeting I set 3, 4 weeks ago that's no longer as relevant as it once was. I will cancel those things and I will reduce other, other time blocks. Maybe meetings that I thought should take 60 minutes. Only need 30, or maybe if they're 30, I could bring them down to 15. So I will have a cancel and reduce party. I'll look at my calendar for the next week and I will cancel and/or reduce certain things. I encourage everybody to try this out. You may be thinking, I don't really have anything that needs to be canceled or reduced. I'm going to challenge you on that because I bet if you run through your calendar, you're going to find at least one or two things, which is going to allow for more time on your calendar so that you could focus on the things that matter most. Now, in terms of reviewing the next week's calendar and setting myself up for success, I run through, or I think through, potential what-ifs. I will look at the things on my calendar. I will think about my week, and I've mapped out in my mind what the ideal week is. But I'm also going to think to myself, what if, what if this meeting goes a different direction? What if that project takes longer than I thought it would? What if, you know, that, that objective is missed? I will ask myself a variety of what-if questions, basically poke holes in my own world, my own calendar, black hat everything I'm doing. I will think through these what-ifs, and then more importantly, I will think through contingency plans. Now, 9 out of 10 times, these contingency plans are not put into effect because the what-if doesn't come to fruition. But I go through this mental exercise of black-hatting my own world and saying, hey, what if this doesn't work out? What would I do? What pivot would I make? What phone call would I make? Who would I, who would I connect with? Or how would I, you know, how would I approach that differently? I will think through these things. So I'm prepared. I want to be prepared. I want to be objective versus emotional and subjective. The last two things I do on Sunday to make sure that I am going to have momentum rolling into the week. Everybody should do this. Call your mom, call your dad. If you haven't talked to them, call them on Sunday afternoon and say hi. I don't need to explain the reasons for that. Bake that into your calendar. Make that a mandatory weekend commitment. Call your mom, call your dad. And then the very last thing to set yourself up for success and close out a successful weekend, get your butt to bed early on Sunday night. Have a lot of sleep. So when you roll into Monday morning, energy is high, you have mental clarity, and you're ready to rock. That's all we have for today. The No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day, brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.