How to use weekends for mental health
prtkgpt.medium.com
prtkgpt.medium.com
Assuming you are working a standard Mon - Fri, the correct amount of weekends to be working is 0.
There is some tradeoff point if you make overtime and you need the money. If you are salaried, then just say no.
I occasionally get asked to work a late night or a weekend. It's never a real emergency - nobody is blocked, it isn't software that impacts live users, etc. It's just scheduling fails by some middle manager somewhere. My answer is always the same:
"Oh, sorry, I can't. Already scheduled."
This right here cannot be overstated. Internet blogs are not a uniformly distributed sampling of the population.
Manufacturing Consent applies to more than just mainstream news media.
Sometimes, weekend work with a team is some of the most engaging work one can perform in a salaried role. I have fond memories of the cycle of scrambling before a launch, the catharsis of the launch, and then the ensuing vacation.
The key thing is committing to the whole cycle - crunch is sometimes a necessary evil but must be followed by equal and opposite rest. Any group that doesn't respect this yin-yang is undeserving of your labor.
If looking at a potential employer I find out they expect weekend work and don't treat it like overtime, I assume they are bad employers and move on.
Typical pushback is a lecture about the importance of being a "team player" and pressure to cancel or reschedule things to make the boss look good.
"Sorry, no." Done. Either it's a shitty enough work environment that they'll fire you, in which case they would have gotten around to it any way, or it's not, and they won't, and nothing happens.
This pushed three of us (out of 5) to quit in the next couple of months (after getting another job sorted).
But the weekends I really treasure are when I can go full nerd-out on some electronics or electronics/firmware or pure software side-project. Even if it’s just a 3 hour uninterrupted block (both not interrupted but also knowing that you won’t be) each day, that’s pure bliss.
No Jira tickets, no sprint stand ups, no estimates, no slack brush-brushes, no zoom calls, just nerding out.
Perhaps this is just grass-is-greener daydreaming. Is anybody doing this/how does it perform? Perhaps I am just so thoroughly conditioned by agile-everywhere-all-the-time and I can't think pass it and this is a very bad idea?
The vast majority of teams didn’t use stand-ups, scrum, or agile.
Sometimes I just want to build and customize some models alone. Lego or Gundam or some ancient ship.
No phone calls, no friends, families and socializing.
Even though I love coding, but sometimes I do feel exhausted. Don't even want to touch the keyboard, gamepad or any electronics.
Sometimes I really only want to lie on the couch and consume. The thought of my electronics projects then seems exhausting. Sometimes I really want to be productive and stimulated, then I work on those projects or read a math or EE textbook, and the thought of just sitting there and consuming seems excruciatingly boring.
The key aspect is to recognize that none of those phases will last forever, and cycling through those various hobbies gives variety.
though how should I find out about important news without reading the news? like what are current COVID/travel restrictions etc? it's easier to just check news site once a day than check dozens of gov sites
news through friends work only if you have many local friends and not friends scattered across the world, so they won't have much useful news for your day to day life and these days I try to avoid small talk about news with local people, because almost everything is way too controversial unless you agree with MSM propaganda
> For starters, try to disconnect from work and social media. Dedicate some time to yourself and do something that makes you happy, whether it’s reading, going for a walk, or spending time with family and friends. You can also use the weekend to catch up on sleep.
> That’s why professionals recommend taking a break from work at least one day each week. And not just any kind of break — a real break. That means no checking email, no working on projects, and no worrying about what’s happening at the office.
Even if I agree with some of this article, this quote is just blatantly false. You can't catch up on sleep.
It's ok to think about work off hours. Write down your thoughts, do some meditation practice to learn to let the work thoughts flow by and notice them, but let them go.
If the latter... just don't do boring things? That's never been an issue for me. I cycle between many hobbies: Electronics, signal processing, my 90s record collection, video games, watching TV shows, aviation... sometimes it's clear that my body just wants me to lay on the couch and consume. Sometimes it's really the opposite and I ache for something "productive" and stimulating. Then TV shows seem boring, so I work on my electronics projects or learns some maths. Sometimes I hit the road in my car.
If it's chores, then for many of them there's ways to make them more enjoyable. Lot of chores don't require your full attention, so you can listen to a podcast, an audiobook, or even watch a movie or TV show while doing so (works well for folding laundry, or doing the dishes if you have an iPad).
I really place importance on the fact that what I watch or listen to has to be fun, though. No podcasts that are work-related, or about "serious issues". For podcasts, it's mostly about video games for me. Audiobooks are novels, i.e. fiction. Movies and TV shows likewise. Otherwise it isn't relaxing.
Everything in moderation.
I have no idea how such shallow faff got on the front page.