Do your weekends actually help you to recharge a long week of work? Or do they just give you enough time to catch your breath, feeling like you’re getting some rest right around the time you get to bed on Sunday night? I don’t typically feel recharged unless I get between 5 and 9 days off of work – a true recharge just doesn’t happen. But! What if I told you that I just had a regular 2-day weekend and felt just as refreshed as I do after a full vacation week? My question to you: have you ever considered a fully electronics-free weekend?
Let’s talk about the value of boredom (I know – great lead in, right?) and how distractions can rob you of the recharge you so badly need.
My Wife’s Spur of the Moment Idea
Late last week my wife suggested that we have an electronics-free weekend to escape from the distraction that our phones, TVs, and computers bring. I said, “Sure! That sounds like a great idea.” Easy enough, right?
Shocking confession here: no one is perfect – certainly not me! It turns out that despite our best efforts, my wife and I are still susceptible to everyday distractions. We still tend to give a fair bit of time to our phones. We check emails, pull up the phone to read or send a text, look up something we’re curious about, or just waste time.
Her favorite choice? Instagram and Apple News. My favorite choice? Gaming subreddits (r/Games, r/PS5, and r/PatientGamers are my go-to). We don’t spend hours at a time on them, but we definitely noticed when they were gone.
To kick the electronics-free weekend off, we removed all electronics on Saturday morning. And…my 5 am morning routine was immediately disrupted. I usually take my pre-workout supplement, sitting in my favorite chair for 15-20 minutes and browse Youtube or Reddit as I wait for that magical pre-workout goodness to kick in.
That was out from the get go, of course, which was very weird – the urge to pull out my phone and check the usual items was really strong. This was a clear indication of how difficult this weekend would actually be.
Was an Electronics-Free Weekend Really That Bad?
Of course not! Restricting myself from the usual Youtube and Reddit checks pushed me to listen to the epic Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy by Cixin Liu. My mind was blown time and time again, I can’t recommend this trilogy enough to sci-fi buffs. I got so lost in the story that I wound up listening to it during my workout – a surprisingly effective alternative to my usual music.
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When everyone woke up and came downstairs, I was able to spend my time with them fully without distraction – no phone, no TV, no YouTube. We sang songs (“We don’t talk about Bruno, no, no, no!”), danced around the kitchen and living room, and put puzzles together. It’s absolutely incredible how much more I was able to enjoy the time without a phone to check every few minutes. I never thought putting together little puzzles of Lightning McQueen, Cruz, and Jackson Storm (my youngest daughter loves Cars) could be so much fun. There was more to it, though!
I Got So Much Done
My electronics-free weekend was productive! And not in the same way that I usually talk about, with strict scheduling and task focus. No, I mean that I allowed myself to go on without a schedule – and I finally got around to knocking out a lot of things that were lingering in the background as low-priority items like yard work. Yuck. And on a nearly 1.5-acre lot with plenty of vegetation in the berms to take care of (daily weed overgrowth – seriously, how do they grow so fast?!), that’s no small feat.
I mowed the lawn, cut out and burned rogue trees that grew into the evergreens and bushes, trimmed the past-due bushes and hedges, and finally fixed the DeWalt trimmer that’s been without trimming line for well over a month. I tell you what, mowing is fine, but when you finally cut out all the overgrowth it really makes a transformative impact. For the first time this season I felt proud of my yard instead of just maintaining it.
What else did I do? I finished that audiobook trilogy, got extra reading in (Daring Greatly), wrote my article for the week, and even got to go see the Japanese Festival at our local Japanese garden.
The Best Part? More Time.
The best part of removing the normal distractions was the attention we were now able to give each other. As someone that is perpetually busy, this was an adjustment for me. After a couple of hours I was used to it though, and I loved it. My wife and I had more meaningful conversations, my daughter and I got to spend a lot of quality time together, and I didn’t feel like I had to give something up to do any of it.
Why?
A weekend free from electronics feels so damn long! I never feel refreshed after a weekend. They always feel so short and rushed, like there’s just too much to do and nowhere near enough time to do it. Removing electronics from the equation helped that weekend to actually feel long enough! I went back to work on Monday feeling refreshed, thankful, and motivated. The last time I felt that way was after 16 days off for Christmas holiday! Imagine getting that feeling every 5 days…yeah, I’m sold.
What I Plan To Do Going Forward
So where do we go from here? Will every weekend be electronics-free? No video games, movies, anything? Not quite. There can still be a lot of value in having those things if you make sure the important parts of life are taken care of first. My plan going forward:
- No electronics starting at breakfast on Saturday and Sunday. I’ll still let myself get into music and some news before my workout if I choose, but I also know how nice it can be to get lost in a story instead.
- Once everyone is up for an amazing breakfast, electronics are out (with the exception of music here and there). That means no TV, no YouTube, no phones, no video games, no internet browsing. Weekends will be focused on family and getting our responsibilities taken care of.
- In the evenings starting at 6 or 7 pm we can have a family movie night in our home theater or play a family video game (Mario Kart 8 is our go-to). My youngest daughter LOVES watching me play Sunbreak, the new expansion to Monster Hunter Rise, so as part of her bedtime routine she gets to watch me play for 15-20 minutes and we “feed the baby owl” before she goes off to bed. Super special stuff, I love it!
We’ll see how it goes from here, but I’m excited to have found a way to recapture my weekends!
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