78. Weekend Work: Smart Move or Bad Habit? And How to Regain Weekday Focus (Q&A)
Episode 78
In this monthly Q&A episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I answer two listener questions:
Question 1: Should I work on weekends?
Question 2: What should I do if I can’t seem to focus during the week, even though my job isn’t that hard?
I break down the difference between occasional weekend work and chronic overwork, and how to identify focus issues rooted in systems or executive function. We talk about how to restructure your workday using strategies like time blocking and admin blocks.
What You’ll Learn:
The difference between helpful and harmful weekend work
Why burnout often starts with poor structure, not poor motivation
What to look for in your time and task systems
Easy strategies for improving weekday focus
When it’s time to explore ADHD or mental health patterns
🎙️Other Episodes + Resources Mentioned:
Subscribe on YouTube(@LearnAndWorkSmarter)
Episode 12: Are Your Productivity Systems Broken?
Episode 14: How to Use the Pomodoro Technique
Episode 45: Are You Doing Too Much?
Episode 77: How to Use Time Blocking to Improve Focus and Productivity
Free Professional Self-Assessment Checklist: (Free PDF Download)
✏️Get my FREE parent training: How to Help Your Student Handle School Like a Pro — Without Study Frustration, Assignment Overwhelm, or All the Drama (If you’re the parent of a high school or college student, this training is for you.)
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The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I am choosing not to spend my time fixing them 😉
78. Weekend Work: Smart Move or Bad Habit? And How to Regain Weekday Focus (Q&A)===
Well, hello, this is Katie and you are listening to episode 78 of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast. This is one of our monthly q and a episodes where I answer questions that were submitted by listeners, and if you're wondering how to get your own questions answered on the show, it is really super easy.There's a form right there in the homepage of Learn and Work Smarter, but of course, I will leave a link directly to that form in the show notes of this podcast or in the description box. If you are watching on YouTube, I will answer any [00:00:30] questions related to learning and working smarter. So if you are a professional or a student of any age of any kind, submit your questions and I will add them to the queue.
And that reminds me if you are listening to this in a podcast app and you haven't gone over to YouTube yet to subscribe to the show, I would absolutely love if you did that. The audio version of this podcast is growing faster than I had ever imagined it would, and sometimes I look at my stats on the back end, and I am just so [00:01:00] speechless at where you guys are listening from and how many people are enjoying the show.
But the podcast YouTube channel is another story, and if you're so inclined, I will leave a link to subscribe in the description box or in the show notes as well.
All right. That was enough plugs in one introduction, but we have a good show today. Well, we have some really good questions today, and I'm gonna do my best to give some good answers and make it a good show. All right, let's begin.
So we [00:01:30] have two questions today. The first question is pretty bare bones at its core, or at least that's how I'm interpreting it, but I think it's a really great question, so I'm just gonna read it word for word, so you know what I mean by bare bones.
Okay. The listener submits or asks, um, working on weekends, thoughts, yay or nay. I go back and forth on this one. Thanks. So that was it. No context, no information if you are a professional or a student, you know, 'cause students [00:02:00] also work on schoolwork on the weekends. So without that context, I don't honestly know whether to answer your question as like, should I get a job on the weekends or is it okay to plug away at my standard nine to five job on the weekends?
But I am gonna answer this question as if you're asking me, is it okay to take work home with me on the weekends? And hopefully that is how you intended the question, but that's the direction that we're gonna go. Because if you are a student asking me if it's okay to like [00:02:30] do homework on the weekends, then yeah, the answer's yes.
That is what you gotta do. And if you're asking the question from a place of, oh, is it okay to have a job on the weekends? I'm gonna say yes to that too. 'cause not all jobs are Monday through Friday, nine to five. I worked on the weekends for ages when I used to run an SAT prep class at local high schools on Sunday mornings.
I would work a nine to five job, you know, and then I would work Sunday mornings doing my te uh, test prep classes. You just gotta do what you gotta do. So the answer is yes to that question too, but I am assuming that you [00:03:00] are not asking that.
So through the process of elimination, we're gonna assume that you're asking me is it a good idea to do some of my professional work on the weekends? And my answer to that is, sure. Why not? I mean, I just think that we have to be careful with the word Okay. Or the phrasing, like, is it okay? I'm using air quotes if you're not watching on YouTube.
But because I think that asking if something is okay implies some sense of value or morality. Like if I were to flat out say [00:03:30] that it's okay to work on the weekends, that would sound like I'm suggesting it's morally appropriate or inappropriate, you know, one way or the other. And that is not a position that I can take.
So I'm thinking maybe it's better to think about this question, like is it a good idea to work on the weekends? But then my questions back to you are: Do you want to do work on the weekends? Does working on the weekends make you feel better? Does it move you toward your professional goals and not impact your [00:04:00] personal goals that you have for yourself?
You know what I mean? I feel like those are the questions that we need to be curious about when thinking about working on the weekends.
So for example, if you work a standard, you know, nine to five job and you have a huge project that you've been working on and it's kind of an all hands on deck, company-wide initiative, or a project that you're really proud of and you're really invested in, and it would actually make everything easier for you if you worked a bit over the weekend, then cool, do that. But [00:04:30] you know, if you really enjoy your work and working a few extra hours on Saturday or Sunday makes you happy and it doesn't interfere with your family obligations or your personal pursuits, then go for it.
If you're excited about what you are working on and the idea of waiting until Monday morning to return to it makes you feel like antsy, then work on it over the weekend.
Where I would caution you against working on the weekends though, is if it's a like a chronic situation. [00:05:00] Where you are regularly feeling behind on your work and Friday comes around and you haven't done what you needed to do, and you have this idea that working on the weekends is the only way that you can catch up or not fall behind, then I would suggest taking a deeper look at, you know, what's on your plate or perhaps maybe your productivity and time systems and how those are designed or not designed.
It is super normal to wrap up a workday on Friday and not get done all that we wanted to get done. That's how life works. But if [00:05:30] it's happening every single week like this, and every single Friday, you are already feeling behind for the next week, then just working a few extra hours on the weekends is more like a band-aid, but it doesn't actually solve the problem.
The problem is probably, like I said, a work overload issue or a productivity. or focus or time or task management issue. Does that make sense? I have some really great podcast episodes that can help you figure this out for yourself. One is called Are Your Productivity Systems Broken, [00:06:00] and that is episode 12, and in that episode, I give a free self-assessment checklist that you can take to, evaluate your productivity systems and figure out where the weak link is.
I'll also leave a link to that free assessment in the show notes of this episode, but let's take a minute to walk this through.
Let's say that working on the weekends is something that you're choosing to do. You enjoy it. You're working toward a goal, and it doesn't interfere with your personal and family obligations.
Great. Then my suggestion therefore, becomes what can you do about your [00:06:30] weekend work hours to make those hours feel novel, to feel different from your weekday work hours? This might sound odd, but can you romanticize your weekend work hours to some degree? Can you go somewhere else to do your work? Can you do it at a coffee shop?
Can you make your work weekend, weekend work routine notably different from your normal Monday through Friday routine? And the reason I say this is 'cause over time, if you're just doing the same old work [00:07:00] seven days a week and none of it feels different, you might end up burning out. And that's what would impact the work that you do Monday through Friday.
Now, there's an expression that says A change is as good as rest, and I think that might be relevant here. Obviously, I'm not suggesting that you work over rest like we all need to rest, but if you're choosing to work, then can you change it up in a way so that it feels different enough so that it doesn't burn you out.
Now let me come back to what I said, uh, earlier in my answer, which is. [00:07:30] I expressed some hesitation about working on the weekends just for the sake of consistently trying to play catch-up. You really need to figure out that part before you proceed with trying to romanticize anything. If it truly comes down to a math equation, like you do truly have more work on your plate than is reasonable, you have to have that conversation with your manager.
I have a podcast episode called Are You Doing Too Much? That's episode 45, and I give you a step-by-step roadmap to figure out if you are indeed doing too much. Like [00:08:00] are you responsible for more work than you could ever handle? And in that episode, I share some strategies for how to get yourself out of that situation and the conversations that you'll need to have if you're in that situation.
Okay. So is it okay to work on the weekends? The short answer is yes. If you want to, the long answer is, uh, like let's look at some other factors if you feeling like you have to. All right, we are ready for the [00:08:30] next question, which has a little more context than the first one, and I'm gonna read it here. It says, hi Katie.
I'm not sure if my question has to do with motivation or focus or both or something else i'm not thinking of. Hoping it's not just because I'm lazy. Here's the problem. Most days of the week, I can't seem to get my job done. I work in the business side of tech, so I have very real deliverables, but two or three days a week I feel like I just stare at my computer.
Sometimes I can get into a trance and [00:09:00] crank on my work in a few hours, crank on my work in a few hours, but on those other days, which is most days, no matter how hard I try, I just can't bring myself to do what I'm supposed to do. My job is not exceptionally hard, so I'm not sure what's going on. Thank you, Katie. Love the show.
Thank you. And thank you for your question and thanks for that feedback. You know, right out of the gate, I wanna give a disclaimer that I am not a physician and I cannot offer insights or advice about medical [00:09:30] conditions. Okay? And the reason why I am giving that disclaimer is 'cause my first instinct was to think mental health.
And maybe I am way off here, but if you say that nearly every day, you're finding it hard to be motivated to do your job, I am inclined to think that maybe the low motivation could be a result of something that has nothing to do with, you know, systems and productivity. But again, I can neither treat nor diagnose medical conditions like depression, but my suggestion is to seek advice from a physician just [00:10:00] to rule that out.
And another little antenna of mine that went up is my ADHD antenna. Again, A DHD has to be evaluated and diagnosed by a qualified professional. But the way that you described your experience, it almost sounds like you're having some hyper-focus episodes followed by work aversion or, you know, um, an inability to initiate.
And those can be hallmark characteristics of someone with A DHD. Someone with ADHD can enter into [00:10:30] hyper-focus episodes where you lose all sense of time and sometimes you don't even eat or go to the bathroom and you just enter this trance state that is really hard to come out of. But then on the flip side of that experience, right, is, is the polar opposite then you didn't say, which is a, you know, work aversion and you didn't say whether or not you had DHD. And I'm not saying that you do because I cannot do that on a podcast, but those are just some things to consider before we dive into the more tactical [00:11:00] approach. Okay? But for the sake of giving you some tactical strategies, let's hypothetically rule out mental health and rule out A DH, D.
All right. Where does that leave us? Well, that leaves us with focus and systems. And when I say systems, I'm primarily referring to time management systems and task management systems. And then when I talk about focus, I'm talking about managing distractions. So let's talk about time management first.
Do you have enough structure to your [00:11:30] day? Sometimes, when we sit down at a desk or show up at our job without a clear plan of what we're doing and when we're gonna do it, nothing happens psychologically. We think, well, I have all day to do this. And then that is honestly the least effective thing for motivation.
And last week's episode, episode 77, I talked all about time blocking. Time blocking is when you give structure to your day by creating specific chunks of time where you're working on specific tasks. I highly [00:12:00] suggest you watch or listen to episode 77, where I teach you exactly how to do this. And even if you don't do this time blocking exercise every single day, you can try doing it on the days that you're feeling most lost at sea and see if it works.
You know, one of the reasons this strategy works so much is that creating your time block plan in advance forces you to look at the things on your plate and look at your calendar and play a little Tetris. It forces you to think to yourself, okay, like, what do I have to do [00:12:30] right? When am I gonna work on this?
And if you write that plan down and you stick to it as much as you can, that can increase your motivation. You can also try using the Pomodoro technique throughout the day. This is different from time blocking. The Pomodoro technique I teach you in episode 14. This is from like the beginning of when I first launched the podcast, but it's when you work for 25 minutes and you rest for five.
You work for 25 minutes, and then you rest for five. And if you do this, um, like a couple pomodoro stacked in a row, then you would [00:13:00] eventually take a longer break. Okay. For the work sessions and the break sessions, you have to use a timer. Okay, it's, it's not a Pomodoro technique if you're not using a timer.
And this can be a very effective strategy for people who are in a situation that you describe. But again, the key point here is to set the timer. Okay? Then task management, that's another system that, if not dialed in, can lead to a lack of productivity and a lack of focus, a lack of purpose.
Now, a good task management system, it is simple. [00:13:30] It captures, or, you know, catalogs everything that we need to get done. And usually, a task management system will have some way to track your status on your projects, because most things that we do, we don't sit down and complete them from beginning to end in one session.
Okay? Especially if you're a working professional. Some things take, you know, weeks or projects sometimes even take months, months from beginning to end. So you need a way to track where you are in that process.
Now, whether your task management system is, I don't know, a simple [00:14:00] piece of paper, a notebook, maybe something more complex like Asana or Notion, or maybe even something that your company subscribes to and they make you all use the same thing.
That feels very school, but whatever. The very active writing in your tasks and spelling them out gives you clarity on what those tasks are. Because when we don't have total clarity on what we're supposed to be doing, how are we supposed to do it right? And most people listening to this episode who have a task [00:14:30] management system up and running have a lot of tasks in there.
That's just the nature of professional work. And that, for some people, can be just as overwhelming, just seeing this giant list of tasks. So if the idea of having a giant repository of all your obligations stresses you out, still create one. And put everything in there so it's your, you know, one source of truth, but maybe you just focus on one, two, or three primary tasks per day, plus [00:15:00] an admin block.
That can be a really decent starting point structure to your day. If you're used to just showing up at work, being like, oh, what am I doing? And you don't even know how to create the structure. Choose one to three projects per day. Put them in a time block planner, throw in a 30-minute admin block to handle email and paperwork and phone calls or whatever.
And of course, you might have meetings in there, but if you walk into your workday saying, these are the two things I'm working on today, and I'm working [00:15:30] on task A from this time to this time, and I'm checking email from this time to this time. And then I have a meeting. And then I'm gonna work on task B from this time to this time.
Right? Then you can override the desire to procrastinate that comes from having no plan at all.
But you're not lazy at all. , Like you directly asked me, is it because I'm lazy? No. You're operating in an environment that likely lacks structure, clarity, and the cognitive support for the type of work that you're expected to do.
Again, that's [00:16:00] just the nature of workplace, you know, environments. And some of that you don't have control over and some of it you do, right? So consider those mental health or ADHD considerations that I brought up. And then apart from that, evaluate your systems. Um, see what's working, see what's not working.
Ask yourself if you even have systems. Really take some time to reflect on, like in those moments when you say to yourself, okay, I need to do this thing, but I just can't. Where I just, [00:16:30] I just can't. What is going on in that moment? Are you exhausted? Are you hungry? Are you distracted? Um, do you not have clarity on what it is you're supposed to even be working on in the first place?
Okay, so the next time those moments hit pause, the next time those moments hit you, I want you to pause and ask yourself, what is the environment and the emotional condition right now that is contributing to my task aversion? Does that make sense? Okay. I hope that helps. Thank you to the listeners who submitted [00:17:00] questions for this episode.
And remember, you can submit your own questions at Learnandworksmarter.com. The links to everything I mentioned in today's episodes are at Learnandworksmarter.com/podcast/78. I appreciate you spending time with me today and remember, never stop [00:17:30] learning.
