Ben Wang
Weekend Wednesday: How the pandemic is an opportunity
So recently I watched a video by CGP Grey called “Weekend Wednesday” where he discusses the current drawbacks of the 5 day work week and how the pandemic allowed him to find an interesting solution. I think it’s a really interesting video for many different reasons and puts into consideration the culture of work and university.
I highly recommend you watch it if you’re curious:
The most interesting part of the video to me is the idea that “it takes three days off just to feel like two days off and two days feels like one day off… but one day off isn’t none day off, a day off never goes unappreciated”.
Wow. I can really relate to this even when we’re just talking about hours between classes. While of course everyone is a little different, I think there is something to be said about how the current work week is structured. While it is convenient that work is in one chunk, the problem is that everyone adopts both the starting and ending time and everyone knows about the grief of rush hour. In addition, public places like stores and gyms have their peak hours before and after work making any chore or task a real pain. Of course the biggest issue is the burn-out at the end of the week and this is why the video exists.
That’s cool and all, but how does Weekend Wednesday help me?
While normally TAMS students have to have classes every work day, this pandemic changed that due to many courses going asynchronous which serendipitously gave me a Tuesday with absolutely no classes. Even though I had extracurriculars later in the day, I found myself with essentially a Weekend Wednesday but on Tuesday instead.
So what did I learn? I really love it! Having a day to do anything I want really lets me keep my homework in check and give me time to destress before I go back into classes. Even having a couple hours before the next class helps me relax and do other chores while I’m at home. I find the second point much more interesting since I had an evening class last year and hated it. What I figured out is that I most likely hated my evening class last year because of the activities I missed (mainly dinner) and the short break I had between my afternoon and evening class.
CGP Grey’s video is a macro and microcosm of how I want to approach my working cycles since I noticed the benefits even with accidentally implementing it. The couple hours of downtime give me the flexibility to work, play, or relax all while still attending all of my lectures. With this new experience it might be time for me to try to implement this on a monthly basis in the form of a guilt free “chill day” or perhaps “the hermit zone”.
If you found Weekend Wednesday an interesting idea, then don’t be afraid to try it out! Even a few hours of a break really helped me so who knows!
Also you should check out Cortex where CGP Grey talks more about working and how he copes with being self-employed after working as a teacher.
Photo Credit:
