Hey, nobody’s judging. We’re all guilty of a little weekend work time. There’s so much around these days encouraging us to take care of our wellbeing and maintain a good work life balance, but when you’re first starting out with your creative business, there are undoubtedly going to be times when you need to be taking care of business late at night, or at the weekend. Sometimes both. If you’ve turned down a night at the pub with friends in favour of catching up on work, here are 5 things you need to be doing:

Keep your late-night working low-key

Just because you’re working on a Saturday night, doesn’t mean you should be, and your clients certainly don’t need to know. Try to avoid sending emails outside of your normal office hours. If you start to do this regularly, the people you work with will begin to believe that you are available at any time of the week, and that won’t be good for you when they next have an impending deadline. They need to know that you won’t just drop everything to do the work they have left until the last minute, so keep your weekend work sessions on the down-low.

Set the mood

If you have to work at a time when everyone else you know is out enjoying themselves (gah, Facebook why do you make me so jealous?), then you should be enjoying yourself too, even if you’re stuck in the house working. Light a candle, put on some soft background music, make a delicious dinner, pour a glass of wine or whatever your thing is, and try to settle in for the night. Working late keeps your mind on your to-do list, so at least attempt to relax a little no matter how much you still have to do.

Treat yourself (it’s a Saturday night!)

Want to get finished faster and treat yourself to nice things? Remember to reward yourself for a job well done. Whatever is going to help give you that little bit of extra incentive to finish work quicker; a tasty cookie once you’ve written that last document? Mhmm. Complete that spreadsheet and finally click purchase on the pair of shoes you’ve had in your virtual basket for a month? Oh go on then. Whatever gets the work done.

Rearrange your plans, don’t cancel

Don’t ever get frustrated about the amount of work you have to do and outright cancel plans. That’s a sure-fire way to lose touch with friends and find yourself in the same position a month later. You deserve to have fun every once in a while, so if it can’t be tonight, let your friends know how stressed out you are (the good ones will totally understand) and rearrange for as soon as you can. Life has to go on around work.

Go to bed at a reasonable hour

This is THEE MOST IMPORTANT tip of all; no matter how much work you have on your plate, always, always go to bed at a reasonable hour to ensure you catch enough Zs. Sleep is what’s going to keep you alert and working at your peak throughout the week, so don’t be tempted to stay up late just because it’s the weekend. Give yourself a bedtime and make sure you stick to it, it’s going to help you be extra productive on Sunday too.

Photo by Mikayla Mallek via Unsplash Mikayla Mallek