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In Praise of the 7-Day Quarantine Workweek
And other solutions for those who dread the unstructured abyss of the weekend
For most of my employed life, I’ve embraced a sentiment shared by just about all workers in our post-industrial society: Weekends rule. Every week, from Wednesday on, I’d daydream about filling Saturday and Sunday with adventures and time with family and friends. I loved putting plans on my calendar: a new hike, a day at a music festival, a birthday party at a bar.
During these two cherished days, Work Stephen would completely switch off. Barring any emergencies, all straggling projects, reports, and emails could wait until Monday.
Then the pandemic came along.
When the world was put on lockdown, weekends quickly started to feel exactly like weekdays, only with less work and stimuli. And I started feeling off. I was anxious, unsatisfied, bored. Soon, I began dreading the end of the workweek, knowing I was about to enter yet another 48 hours of Netflix and doomscrolling.
After several weeks, it finally hit me that as the world was changing around me, I needed to adapt my life — and routines — to match it. Here are three steps I took to recreate the structure I thrived on pre-quarantine. If your weekends have been feeling a bit aimless, these…
