lazy weekend essentials
Lifestyle

Lazy Weekends are the Best Weekends

Like most Fridays, the other day, my coworker asked what my weekend plans were. Most weeks, the usual game plan often includes cleaning/reorganizing, running errands, working out, seeing friends, and anything else that feels “productive” to me. Even when I give myself a little “Self-love Sunday,” it often becoming a small snippet of my weekend, sandwiched between all of my “to-do’s” for the day.

I remember telling a friend on Friday that I used to feel bad whenever I didn’t have any social or productive plans for the weekend. I often throw myself into new learnings, events, projects, hobbies– how do you think this blog started? I’m so used to keeping myself busy or social at all times that I get stressed when I give myself a few days away from it all. Even with life considerably slowing down these past few months, I still have that need to keep myself productive. What’s next to do? What do I need to accomplish? Who do I need to see? While that’s generally a good thing, I get easily fatigued. I have to remind myself that I don’t have to be on my A-game 100% of the time. In fact, some of the best weekends are when I devote my time to doing “nothing” to give my body and mind a break — I don’t have to on the go and active all the time. I don’t have to make the most of every moment of every day.

So in response to my co-worker, I honestly explained how excited I was to binge-watch Little Fires Everywhere (seriously, if you haven’t seen it, what are you even doing right now?!?). For the first time in a while, I was just truly looking forward to shutting my brain off and chill. It was so nice to not have anything in my queue to get done. No urgent errands, reorganization projects, content creation (except for this post, which btw, is more of a ramble than formal content creation, written from the comfort of my bed and chai in hand).

So in the typical Mani fashion, I even had my lazy weekend all planned out: make and eat yummy food, watch tv, read and write whatever I’m in the mood for, and lay in bed during the day without guilt. I was so looking forward to embracing the “nothingness” of my weekend.

On Friday night, I whipped up a quick batch of banana bread since I had some bananas that were getting a little too ripe (I use this recipe, and slightly modified it to my liking). While that was baking, I relaxed on the couch and continued watching Little Fires Everywhere (I had about 3 episodes left at this point). After, I curled up in my bed, ate my banana bread, and continued watching until I wrapped up the show. I was so engrossed in it, I didn’t even realize it was 1 am by the time I was done.

Saturday was just as uneventful — in a great way. I slept in, and let myself lay in bed and read. I feel so content on weekend mornings, especially on sunny days. The sun was shining through my curtains and illuminated my room with a warm glow, while I soaked it up from the comfort of my bed. I had some more banana bread and some berries for breakfast accompanied by my cup of chai. Let this be the first and not the last time I tell you about my love for chai, especially dirty chai (chai latte with espresso). It’s my go-to order at any cafe I go to!

I then read some poems from Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey for some poetry inspiration. Not many know this but when I was younger I used to write a ton of poetry. Recently, I found one of my old notebooks full of all my random writing, doodles, snippets of whatever was on my mind. I was impressed by some of my poems from ~8 years ago and felt inspired to get back into it. I think it will be a really good way to let my brain chill — let it wander in whichever direction it wants to go.

The fact that I don’t quite remember what I did yesterday is probably a sign that I didn’t do much at all. Later that evening, I spent some time on the phone with some friends I haven’t seen in a while– SO grateful for technology during these times! I also started a new show to ease the pain from me finishing Little Fires Everywhere and wanting more– Normal People, which I continued to watch on Sunday.

weekend french toast

I woke up with very little on my agenda for Sunday — my main goal was to recharge for an upcoming busy week. I woke up with a big craving for French toast. I’m sure it’s no surprise to everyone that breakfast is my favorite meal of the day; I always look forward to it! I love French toast, but it’s is not something I make often– I’ve always considered it as a special treat because it reminds me of when my mom would occasionally make it for me as a kid. However, with practice, I’ve learned to prepare it quickly, so I should be making it more often. I topped it off with my essentials: berries, maple syrup (duh), and a very light sprinkle of powdered sugar. Relatively healthy and very delicious! Let me know if I should share my recipe– inspired by my mom’s with some small modifications.

The rest of Sunday has consisted of watching more Normal People, reading Gabrielle Union’s book We’re Going to Need More Wine, writing, and rummaging through my kitchen to munch on whatever I can find.

If I’m being honest, my idle weekend has made me a little restless, both mentally and physically. It’s been SO nice to just momentarily step away from “productivity” and relax, but I have a few “to-do’s” in the back of my mind that I want to hash out. I’ve decided, in the meantime, to enjoy my chill day and tonight do a little prep for the week ahead. I’m also getting physically antsy too, so I’m considering going on a walk in the evening or do a short workout just to get myself moving.

Overall, I had a successful and much-needed dedicated lazy weekend of good food, books, TV, and self-care! This was just a great reminder to myself to take it easy and go at my own pace. Taking a day or two off doesn’t mean I’m holding myself back from my social life, learning new skills, gaining opportunities, and getting work done. In fact, it makes me ready to turn back on the productivity switch and power throughout the week.

Hope you all had a great weekend! Drop a comment below and let me know what you like to do on your chill weekends. Can anyone relate to the feeling of needing to be productive as much as possible? Let me know!

4 Comments