A long weekend is a welcome break from the weekly routine, a chance to rejuvenate and reconnect with family. Maybe a short trip away from home, fishing trip, weekender or just a chance to put your feet up and forget the schedule for a day. What if this were the norm, not the exception?
The reason why a long weekend is so relaxing is that it breaks the habit of work. And the reason why it is thought-provoking is the half-joking statement “I should do this more often.”
Followed occasionally by the realisation that you could do this more often.
Professionals in practice have the potential to control their work/life balance to a significant degree. But we don’t train ourselves to think that way – we consider deadlines and workload, but we tend to approach downtime as if it were slack time, just another opportunity to add more workload.
But there are alternatives. A practitioner can think of adding an equity partner, for example, to share and expand workload while maintaining profitability without compromising work/life balance. It’s also an opportunity to mentor a successor – an issue that no practitioner in their prime wants to spend time on but which every practitioner will need to consider sooner or later (and trust us, sooner is better than later.)
You don’t necessarily need to make changes right now, of course – you should never charge headlong into change. But the sooner you start considering and planning the more options you will have, and the better your outcomes are likely to be.
Enjoy your weekend, and don’t forget – you can do that more often. If you want to.
