12/14/21, 12:20 PM Use Your Weekends to Build, Not Escape | by Tim Denning | The Startup | Dec, 2021 | Medium

Sign in to your account (no__@g__.com) for your personalized experience.

Sign in with Google

Not you? Sign in or create an account

You have 2 free member-only stories left this month. Sign up for Medium and get an extra one

Use Your Weekends to Build, Not Escape

Here’s how to do it without burning out.

Tim Denning Follow

Dec 2 · 5 min read

https://medium.com/swlh/use-your-weekends-to-build-not-escape-bd9200d7771e 1/7
12/14/21, 12:20 PM Use Your Weekends to Build, Not Escape | by Tim Denning | The Startup | Dec, 2021 | Medium

Photo by Ubiq on Unsplash

Building on the weekend can cause you to burnout.

That’s not with this article is about. You can work after hours and not burnout if you’re
smart about it.

The trouble is most of us use the weekend to escape. Writer Jari Roomer got me thinking
after a recent article. “Use the weekend to build the life you want instead of trying to
escape the life you have,” he says.

Jari explains that for many of us, the weekend not only stops us from progressing our
goals. But the weekend can make us go backwards, so we start Monday being further
behind than we were the previous Friday.

If every weekend you get drunk, it moves your health backward.

If every weekend you go shopping or purchase expensive bottles at the club, it moves your
finances backward.

https://medium.com/swlh/use-your-weekends-to-build-not-escape-bd9200d7771e 2/7
12/14/21, 12:20 PM Use Your Weekends to Build, Not Escape | by Tim Denning | The Startup | Dec, 2021 | Medium

And if every weekend you spend a lot of hours watching Netflix, it moves your mental clarity
backward.

Habits move us forward. Escape activities move us backward.

Pay attention to which category you fill your weekend with. It explains why you haven’t
built that one thing yet that you know can change your life.

Find a way to become this sort of person

There’s two types of people in the world:

1) I don’t know how to do it.

2) I don’t know how to do it but I’ll find a way.

— Ross Simmonds
It takes a little creativity to schedule building something on your weekends and after
hours. You can keep saying “I’m too busy” and feel the regret later. Or you can be the
second type of person and be determined to find a way.

We find a way to make time for things we want to build. If they’re not important, we find
a way to make excuses.

The trouble is you think you’ll have time in the future

The trouble is, you think you have time.

— Jack Kornfield
None of us are dumb. We genuinely think we’ll have time to build one day. The trouble is
our imagination takes over from reality. If you can’t find time this weekend then you’ll
unlikely ever find time. May as well be honest.

https://medium.com/swlh/use-your-weekends-to-build-not-escape-bd9200d7771e 3/7
12/14/21, 12:20 PM Use Your Weekends to Build, Not Escape | by Tim Denning | The Startup | Dec, 2021 | Medium

No time equals not a goal.

Get clear on your goals and you’ll find it easier to make time. We force ourselves to make
time for the things that matter. If you’ve got kids, you don’t say, “ahh screw it, I won’t
pick them up from school today and I’ll leave them to stay there overnight. I’m too busy, I
tell ya.”

Nope. You make time for the kids because you don’t want them to die of neglect. Makes
sense.

The worst problem I’ve seen with people who want to build is they use holidays as their
saving grace.

Holidays are a fantasy.

If you didn’t make time to build for the whole year, you likely won’t build on the holidays
either. You need time to relax. You need time to go overseas and experience other
cultures. Using holidays is the worst strategy to build something.

There’s a simpler way that doesn’t lead to burnout.

What quietly scares us about building

What you build could fail.

Others may see it self-destruct. So out of a fear of failure we secretly put off building to
save ourselves from hidden embarrassment.

There’s a better way.

Build in silence. Be quiet about it. Tell no one. Do your weekend work away from the
view of other people. Don’t write about it. Don’t talk about it.

Just build, then experiment …. build, then experiment.

Find a way. Show the results later if you choose. Or stay quiet.

When I quit my old job, I told no one.

https://medium.com/swlh/use-your-weekends-to-build-not-escape-bd9200d7771e 4/7
12/14/21, 12:20 PM Use Your Weekends to Build, Not Escape | by Tim Denning | The Startup | Dec, 2021 | Medium

When I started making money, I told no one.

When I started hitting the gym, I told no one.

I tell no one anything.

Outside opinions will throw off your energy.

— Aaron Will

The powerful way to build after hours

Tiny steps is how you build something that will change your life.

Image Credit–billionaire.mindset via Instagram

Building something when you get time is being the guy on the right in the picture above.
It’s too hard. The gap between the steps you have to take is too great. The trick is to
make the gaps between steps shorter using consistency.

The way to start building is with 15-minute habits.

https://medium.com/swlh/use-your-weekends-to-build-not-escape-bd9200d7771e 5/7
12/14/21, 12:20 PM Use Your Weekends to Build, Not Escape | by Tim Denning | The Startup | Dec, 2021 | Medium

You don’t have time. You’re busy. I get it. But you can easily find 15 minutes a day to
build something that matters. The time needed is so tiny it’s nearly impossible to screw it
up.

What happens with 15-minute habits over time is they produce small amounts of
progress. That progress helps you allocate more time in your schedule to build as you go.

Progress is evidence. Evidence leads to motivation. Motivation simultaneously produces

prioritization.

Freedom builds a wall between yourself and the things you hate doing
The reason we can’t find time to build is because things we hate doing get in the way.

Maybe it’s a job. Maybe it’s a project you committed to. Maybe it’s the toxic people in
your life.

The way to overcome the barrier is to understand that what you build will end up
creating the freedom that puts a wall between what you love and what you hate. You
can’t escape dream killers unless you start to build the antidote.

If you don’t see building as an urgent escape, life will show you more of what you hate
until you do.

Start building this weekend for 15 minutes. Make building a habit. That’s how you
escape the life you hate and replace it over time with one you love.

Join my email list with 50K+ people for more helpful insights.

Sign up for Top 10 Stories

By The Startup

Get smarter at building your thing. Subscribe to receive The Startup's top 10 most read stories —
delivered straight into your inbox, twice a month. Take a look.

https://medium.com/swlh/use-your-weekends-to-build-not-escape-bd9200d7771e 6/7
12/14/21, 12:20 PM Use Your Weekends to Build, Not Escape | by Tim Denning | The Startup | Dec, 2021 | Medium

Your email

Get this newsletter

By signing up, you will create a Medium account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information
about our privacy practices.

Startup Entrepreneurship Money Work Habits

About Write Help Legal

Get the Medium app

https://medium.com/swlh/use-your-weekends-to-build-not-escape-bd9200d7771e 7/7