The typical work week is Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm with a lunch break from 12:30-1:30 pm, right? Those seem to be standard business hours, but there isn’t anything standard about our society and the hours of operations for businesses that are struggling to keep their expenses as low as possible while maximizing revenue. Now, throw the insane cost of living in some places and all of a sudden, you need to work way more than 40 paid hours a week just to pay rent. Let’s not even bring up student loans.
If you have a salary job, there’s a 90% chance that you’re working way more than 40 hours a week and skipping lunch breaks to hit every deadline for the three jobs that you’re doing since they’re not replacing the other people who left because they’d had enough of being a “team player.” Even with that salaried job, you’re not making nearly enough to cover your expenses so you only have one choice. You have to get a second job.
Unfortunately, that second job needs to be kept a secret from your boss because you don’t really want them finding out that you aren’t focusing your all on your primary job and they’ll be paranoid that there will be a conflict of interest or time between the two. Now, you’re driving Uber and Lyft just to be able to buy groceries because your paychecks are only covering rent, utilities, your car payments, and a tiny bit for loans every month.
That standard job just wasn’t enough so you’re putting in a lot of work on the weekends, which brings up the question… what is the weekend? It’s really supposed to signify the end of the work week and your time to not work. It should be your time to relax. You need to do something you enjoy since Monday through Friday is wake up, eat, work, eat, workout, sleep. You don’t even have time for laundry or cleaning the house depending on where you live because you’ve been sitting in traffic three hours every day.
Do me a favor. No, do yourself a favor. Create a weekend for yourself. It doesn’t have to be Saturday and Sunday. It can be just a few hours but you need time for yourself. It doesn’t have to cost you a lot. It can be laying out in the sun, reading a book in the park, or just walking around a nice neighborhood. Do everything in your power to avoid thinking about all of those other things in life that are stressing you out. If something is taking away your weekend and it doesn’t exist anymore, make your own. Because taking care of you helps you stay hungry and fit!
