No. A business owner should not spend a three-day weekend trying to get ahead. Your clients are gone, the rest of the world is taking a break, and if you spend those days in the office you’ll come back Tuesday mad and not quite able to say why.
I said this on Businessing with Pat Miller heading into Labor Day, and it applies to every long weekend on the calendar. Here’s the case.
Why do owners want to work on a long weekend?
Because we’re wired that way. A holiday shows up and the first thought is, “Ooh, a couple of days off. I could get ahead. I could finally do that project I’ve been meaning to do for the business.” I get it. I’ve had the same thought. Owning a business means there’s always one more thing, and empty days look like free capacity.
If you want to work one morning of the weekend, fine. But don’t give the whole three days to the office. The math doesn’t work in your favor. You trade the one break everybody else is getting for a few hours of progress you could have made on any regular Tuesday, and you pay for it in resentment you carry into the next week.
What happens if you work through the weekend anyway?
You come back and you’re angry. Maybe you can’t put your finger on it, but the rest of the world got a break and you didn’t, and some part of you knows it. When we were raising kids, the advice was that the best time to take a nap is when they’re napping. Your clients are napping this weekend. No offense, but they don’t care about you right now. They care about literally everything else on the planet. So go care about you.
The other cost is timing. The Tuesday after Labor Day starts the biggest business sprint of the year. From that Tuesday until early December is when the bulk of the year’s business gets done, and those ninety days need you at full strength. If you walk into September already burned out, it’s not going to go well.
What should a business owner do with a holiday weekend instead?
Anything that has nothing to do with the business. When I asked the show what people were doing, Teresa was taking her dad and her father-in-law to a car show and grilling steaks after. Barbara was painting butterflies and Halloween designs. Alex was heading out to the boonies to see his in-laws. Rebecca was catching up on Project Runway. Kathleen was volunteering at a dunk tank. Not one of those answers involved a laptop. Every one of them was take your brain out, put it on the charger, and enjoy the reason you work so hard in the first place.
If you don’t have an answer to “what am I doing for fun this weekend,” that’s your homework. Sit with it for a minute and come up with one. It doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours.
Why does taking the weekend off matter for your business?
You’re working hard at 11am on a Thursday so you can be off Saturday afternoon and stop at the ice cream stand, because there’s money in the account to do it. That’s the point. We’re building this so we have an awesome life, not so we have an awesome business. A business that eats every holiday isn’t giving you freedom. It’s a job with worse hours.
Rest is how you show up ready for the sprint, and the sprint is where the money is. The owner who unplugs for three days in September comes back with something to give the next ninety. The owner who worked straight through starts the busiest stretch of the year already running on empty.
Questions owners ask
Is it ever okay to work on a holiday weekend?
One morning is fine if something needs you. Giving all three days to the office is where it goes wrong.
What if I’m behind and the weekend is the only free time I have?
Being behind on a Friday is usually a Tuesday problem, not a Saturday problem. Rest, then fix the schedule that put you behind.
Why is the fall sprint such a big deal?
The stretch from early September to early December is when most businesses do the bulk of their year. You want to walk into it rested.
What if I don’t know what to do for fun?
That’s the assignment. Pick one thing that has nothing to do with the business and do it this weekend.
So this weekend, close the laptop, unplug, and get ready for the end of the year. I’ll be doing the same. Watch the full episode if you want the whole conversation. That’s how you figure out what to do next. It’s why I get Fridays off.