How to Make the Most of your Weekends
My name is Josh Laskin, and as a victim of the corporate world I have discovered what seems to be one of the deeper buried secrets in life: a lot can be done on weekends.[st_horizontal_line]
It is often thought that making a 300+ mile drive to the wilderness is way too large an endeavor to be completed in one weekend. That is not necessarily true, however. After accounting for 16 hours of sleep and 12 hours of travel, at least 24 hours still remain. A LOT can be done in 24 hours.
Wake up early, get breakfast, go hiking, sleep under the stars, wake up early again, go out for more breakfast, explore a small town, stop at a farmers market, have lunch, drive home.
The options for what you can do in this amount of time are endless.
[funky_quote align=”center”] A LOT can be done in 24 hours. The options for what you can do in this amount of time are endless. [/funky_quote]
As Americans, we are expected to accept 2 – 5 weeks of vacation time per year while spending the remainder of our time at work. Best case scenario, 5 weeks are spent traveling or doing what we enjoy while 47 weeks are spent working at a job that 95% of us would rather not be at.
With the unreasonable expectations that companies hold for their employees, the increasing focus on technology (checking work emails on ipads at 11:00 PM at night), and the all-too-familiar requirement of working multiple jobs just to pay for an education, most people are finding themselves with less and less time available to do the things that they enjoy.
[funky_quote align=”center”] Get in your car and drive as far as you can on a Friday night, and then explore the town that you end up in [/funky_quote]
With such limited time to ourselves, why use full weeks of vacation time to travel to places that we can see on weekends? Why use every weekend to go out in the town that you live in and experience daily? Utilize every long holiday weekend possible to see new places that may be a bit too far to pull off on normal weekends. Get in your car and drive as far as you can on a Friday night, and then explore the town that you end up in.
Hell, why not even buy a plane ticket for one of those long weekends if you can afford it? With this mentality, those full weeks of vacation time can be reserved for traveling to far-away places that you dream of visiting someday.
Those dreams can be made a reality.
Regardless of age, financial situation, or whatever else may be going that may be a convenient excuse, more can be done with less time.
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About the Author
Josh is an adventurer from Philadelphia who lives for fly fishing, backpacking, and learning about different cultures through travel. When he’s not grinding away in the corporate world, you can find him working as an assistant wilderness guide in upstate NY.
Check out more original work on his website – Exist. Expire.
Photography
Feature image and map – Mark Christy
Tentview 1 – Jeff Carlson @jeffreymichaelcarlson
Tentview 2- Silvio Brügger @brggr