I have worked most weekends of my life. Sometimes it is motivated by practicality, and sometimes driven by sheer habit and compulsion. Sometimes it’s hard to separate the two but there it is — weekends in the office are my default position. Perhaps for this reason, I was drawn this week to a set of career tips by The Creative Group, the very wise specialized staffing firm, about how to minimize weekend work. The Creative Group presents quite nicely pragmatic ways to avoid unnecessary weekend labors. I thought they were also addressing the compulsive aspect — since one piece of advice is headlined ‘Seek Help’. Turns out they meant to hire freelancers, rather than a mental health professional. Oh well.
Working Weekends?
While some employees are working for the weekend, many executives are working on the weekend. Sixty-two percent of advertising and marketing executives surveyed by The Creative Group said they bring work home at least one weekend per month, with 12 percent reporting they do it every weekend. Here are five tips to avoid working weekends:
1. Prioritize.
Take 10 minutes at the start of each day to assign a one-to-three “urgency rating” for each item on your to-do list. Tackle top-rated tasks as soon as possible and postpone or delegate items with less urgency.
2. Empower employees.
Performing certain tasks yourself may initially be quicker than explaining them to someone else. But time spent training staff now can reduce your workload later and improve the overall skill set of your team.
3. Rethink meetings.
Take a close look at any standing or upcoming meetings and ask yourself if there are enough agenda items to merit a gathering.
4. Schedule personal time.
Block time on your calendar to relax or pursue outside interests on weekends. Hobbies can feed your creativity, increase your happiness and provide extra motivation when you’re back in the office.
5. Seek help.
If overtime is constant, consider bringing in freelancers to help ease the workload for you and your team.
For more tips, visit the TCG Blog.
The Creative Group specializes in placing a range of highly skilled interactive, design and marketing professionals with a variety of firms. For more information, please visit creativegroup.com.
