Work 3 days, take 1 day off, work 2 days, then take 1 day off
Perhaps it’s stupid for many of us to work for five days in a row and take a rest for two days in a row.
I quit my job at college last March. Since then, I’ve been self-studying web/app design for my next job. So I’m now free to choose when to work and when to take days off.
Experimentation over the past two months has converged into the following pattern:
- Work three days in a row from Tuesday to Thursday
- Take Friday off to get a rest
- Work two days in a row over the weekend
- Take Monday off to recharge myself
This pattern works wonderfully. The timing of the fourth day as a holiday is just right. I’m mildly tired of working but not too tired to enjoy having a free time. Until last March, I worked from Monday to Friday and had an issue with the weekend of being too exhausted to have any fun.
Having just one day off strikes a good balance between work and life. Two holidays in a row will make it difficult for me to feel like getting back to work on the third day.
If there were eight days a week, I would repeat this four-day cycle. But our society cycles over seven days (for some reason). So I have to compromise with two days of work and one day of leisure in the second cycle.
I have chosen Monday and Friday to be days off because weekends are busy for many fun places to visit in Kyoto. And I have a tea ceremony workshop on three Mondays a month and a bachata dance party on Thursday evenings, both of which are important opportunities for me to socialize amid self-studying at home.
Sometimes, of course, I have to go out over the weekend because most social events and entertainments take place on Saturday and Sunday. Then I turn either Monday or Friday into a working day. This has a disciplining effect on me: to have fun, I have to work now. If working on Monday or Friday is the rule rather than an exception, I won’t feel this way.
Many of us cannot work like this. But if you can, I recommend giving it a shot.
