What Happy People Do Every Weekend That Keeps Them Feeling Refreshed All Week, According To A Happiness Expert
There was a noticeable shift in how people would approach a Monday morning if they did this specific thing over the weekend.
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A | Shutterstock We're all familiar with the "Sunday Scaries" — that anxiety and stress that can severely impact how we tackle the week and our productivity. It can be hard to find the time to rest and enjoy your alone time on the weekend because it either feels too short or is filled with a laundry list of errands and responsibilities to complete.
However, a happiness expert and researcher named Cassie Holmes may have a solution after admitting that there's something most happy people do on the weekends that can combat some of the negative feelings that may be present on that bright Monday morning.
The one thing happy people do every weekend that keeps them feeling motivated during the work week.
For Harvard Business Review in 2019, Holmes revealed that in 2017, she and her colleagues ran an experiment on over 400 working Americans. On a Friday, she told some of the participants to treat the time like a vacation and told the others to spend it like they would any other weekend.
When measuring their happiness afterward, she found that those with a vacation mindset showed more satisfaction and positivity when they returned to work.
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Happy people are able to maintain a vacation mindset during their weekends, but it's something most Americans struggle with.
"The problem is that Americans are really bad at taking vacations. Compared to workers in the European Union, Americans spend more hours in the office each week and take less time off," Holmes wrote for Harvard Business Review. "Americans don’t even use the few vacation days they are allotted: More than 50% of Americans leave their paid vacation days unused each year."
Holmes isn't exaggerating in the slightest. According to an August 2023 survey from the Pew Research Center, some 46% of U.S. workers who receive paid time off from their employer — whether for vacation, doctor’s appointments, or minor illnesses — take less time than they are offered.
Some of the reasons why individuals felt compelled not to use their PTO ranged from worrying about falling behind at work to thinking it might risk losing their jobs.
Holmes explained that the results of her experiment showed that "those who had treated their weekend like a vacation were significantly happier than those who had treated it like a regular weekend."
She noticed that without having to take any extra time off from work and without needing to spend any additional money, the simple "nudge" to treat their weekends off like a vacation meant they were much happier going back to work on Monday.
People with a vacation mindset on the weekend did 'less housework' and felt comfortable 'staying in bed longer.'
"Yes, the 'vacationers' behaved somewhat differently: doing less housework and work for their jobs, staying in bed a little longer with their partner, and eating a bit more," Holmes observed. "These differences in activities, however, weren’t responsible for their increased happiness."
"Instead, treating the time like a vacation seems to have shifted people’s mindset. Specifically, the vacationers were more mindful of and attentive to the present moment throughout their weekend activities."
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Being more present in our everyday lives and not exhausting ourselves, especially on the days when we don't have to, can drastically improve our moods. There's definitely this belief, at least for some people, that they need to be doing something productive every second of the day, and on the weekends, if they're just bed-rotting, then it can be easy to feel guilty about that.
However, research has shown that without ruminating on the past or getting distracted by anxieties or fantasies about the future, and instead, increasing your attention to the present moment makes you more attuned to the pleasures that are already in the environment. It helps you savor these little moments without stressing yourself out about what's going to happen next.
A majority of Americans don't feel 'satisfied' with their lives.
It seems there might be validity in Holmes' suggestion that people start treating their weekends like vacations, considering that a large number of Americans don't feel happy or satisfied with their lives.
According to a February 2024 poll by Gallup, the percentage of Americans who say they are 'very' satisfied with their personal lives has neared a record low.
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The poll found that 47% of Americans consider themselves "very satisfied" with their lives, 31% of Americans are "somewhat" satisfied with how their personal lives are going, 11% are "somewhat" dissatisfied, and 9% are "very" dissatisfied.
While there are many reasons to feel unsatisfied with life, especially when it comes to the state of the world, it's important to make sure that we're not neglecting our needs.
Allowing ourselves to appreciate these small joys in life can truly stop us from counting down the hours until the weekend is over and already dreading the start of a new week.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.