If you work 6 days a week, how do you rest, recharge, do everything else you need to do on your one day off?

[Monr0e]

Today is my day off, and I feel exhausted.
I have been working 6 days a week for the last 9 months or so (with some annual leave and odd day off) and I really feel it is taking its toll now.

I am contracted for a typical 5 day 37.5 hour week and choose to do overtime on a Saturday. Purely for financial reasons and I actually feel very lucky that I have this option, as I am using the extra money to pay off debt we have accrued since moving house.

But I'm shattered. My dc's are older, 17 and 13, but I feel guilty I'm not doing something with the 13 year old at the weekends. There's stuff needs doing around the home. And I feel I'm ageing daily before my eyes.

So, anyone else who works 6 days and actually feels OK about it, how do you do it? Any tips on taking care of myself, and everything else- apart from endless cups of coffee!

Unless you simply just work six days a week every single week, the only proper answer to this is to not do so much!

Switch to once a month or even once a fortnight for a while to recharge a bit.

Otherwise you'll just end up not being able to do any overtime whatsoever

*must not just

Who is "we"?
Is the other part if we doing everything to mske your life easier?
But it is unsustainable....do you get paid leave? Take a week off!

We is DH and I. And he absolutely does do his fair share. He also works every other Saturday morning. I'm just particularly tired today!

I do get annual leave, in fact, I was just off for half term. And I had a pretty lazy week, but then felt guilty for not doing too much!

I know it's not sustainable long term, and I'm not planning on this forever. We bought and moved house in the middle of lockdown. And unfortunately the house has turned out to be a bit of a money pit.

We have transferred the debt on to an interest free credit card, and with some very tight budgeting and my Saturday working, it should be cleared by April, when the interst free deal runs out. So I'm just hanging on in there till then.

Prioritise your children over house jobs where possible, a coffee and cake can take 90 mins and still give you time for other things.

I think it depends how much you're expecting of yourself or trying to do. During term time, I work long hours (8 - 6 m/f, 8 - 4 or later on Sats). So I don't try to do much else. I don't have a time-consuming hobby or a crazy social life. I try to do a little housework every day (e.g. 1 load of laundry or vacuum one level) but otherwise, I just rest, relax and try not to think about work. If I feel extra tired at the end of the day, I try to go to bed early but I don't beat myself up about it. On Sundays, I go round the supermarket (sad, but I enjoy it). My DDs are similar ages to your DCs so they are pretty independent now which helps. It would be a lot harder if they were younger.

@tarheelbaby that sounds similar to what I try and do, which is not very much!

I think I was feeling extra tired yesterday but just need to remember it's ok to have a lazy day, which I did, considering I'm not being lazy the rest of the week.

I don’t think many people get full days off off to just rest do they?

I mean I have a 3 year old. If dh or I aren’t working, we are still busy with child, house, life in general. We try and have a few hours to chill a bit, but a whole day to just rest isn’t possible when you have young children.

My Dc's are older so generally able to fend for themselves.

My lazy day still consisted of shopping, cooking, putting a couple of loads of washing on, helping DD with her homework and general pottering around the house. I just felt less guilty about the times I sat down in between

I had a part time job on top of a full time job for about 10 years, worked Sunday’s in retail. Saved that money for holidays so it made it worthwhile. I just ensured everyone did their share, took it easy with nights out and just maintained a fairly good standard, rather than an excellent standard of everything.

i figured if I hadn’t been doing those extra hours work, I’d be wastin them watching tv, cooking, cleaning, watching kids sports, probably shopping!

youve got an end in sight, it’s doable. I’d keep doing it for a bit and treat yourself and family to something special!

Thank you @nzeire
That's a very good idea. I'm looking to book a holiday when everything is paid off.

I definitely feel if I'm working this much, it would be nice to have something at the end of it to look forward to 🙂

I have done - it burns you out though.

You have to outsource everything you can - cleaner with bells on, ready meals or just assembly food delivered, take a day off to automate all bills.

I did it to push forward my career not for the money as obviously it’s expensive