The Weekend Effect

'A powerful argument, and practical advice, on the importance of reclaiming your leisure time to live a happier and more fulfilling life' - Gretchen Rubin, New York Times bestselling author of BETTER THAN BEFORE and THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

Encroaching work demands - coupled with domestic chores, overbooked schedules, and the incessant pinging of our devices - have taken a toll on what used to be our free time: the weekend. With no space to tune out and recharge, every aspect of our lives is suffering: our health is deteriorating, our social networks (the face-to-face kind) are dissolving and our productivity is down. The notion of working less and living more has given way to the belief that you must be 'on' 24/7.

Tired of suffering from Sunday-night let down, award-winning journalist Katrina Onstad pushes back against this all-work-no-fun ethos. Onstad follows the trail of people, companies and countries vigilantly protecting their time off for joy, adventure and meaning, and digs into the history, positive psychology and cultural anthropology of the great missing weekend.

THE WEEKEND EFFECT reveals that taking back those precious forty-eight hours is the key to increasing joy, creativity, productivity and success. It will be your persuasive, practical and much-needed guide to reclaiming your time off and, ultimately, saving yourself.

“The Weekend Effect is a call to action - or even better - a call to inaction. It proves its case that by staking a claim to your weekend, your work and home life (and your health and wellbeing) benefit every day of the year. Take the time to read it like I did, over a weekend. It's a great way to start”

Too often we race through the week, only to find our weekends packed with countless errands and never-ending to-do lists. Before we know it, we've lost sight of what really makes us happy. In The Weekend Effect, Katrina Onstad offers a powerful argument, and practical advice, on the importance of reclaiming your leisure time to live a happier and more fulfilling life -- Gretchen Rubin, New York Times bestselling author of Better than Before and The Happiness Project
The Weekend Effect is a call to action - or even better - a call to inaction. It proves its case that by staking a claim to your weekend, your work and home life (and your health and wellbeing) benefit every day of the year. Take the time to read it like I did, over a weekend. It's a great way to start -- Kirstine Stewart, media and technology executive and author of Our Turn
Masterfully researched and beautifully written, The Weekend Effect urgently makes the case that our hard won free time is essential to our survival, and needs to be reclaimed. Pick up this book, and get ready to rekindle your love of the weekend! Your emails can wait until Monday -- David Sax, author of The Revenge of Analog
Too often work and technology erode our ability to connect meaningfully face-to-face, intruding into the critical time we need to recharge ourselves. In Katrina Onstad's insightful and compelling book, THE WEEKEND EFFECT, she offers an urgent call to arms on the essential need to take back our weekends -- Dallas Hartwig, NY Times bestselling co-author of It Starts With Food
In our frenetic era of total work devotion and breathless busyness, the idea of making time for leisure has become almost a sacrilege. But Katrina Onstad makes a compelling case in her terrific new book, The Weekend Effect, that true leisure - time for reflection, connection, play and joy - knits together the social fabric of community, soothes the weary soul and, at heart, is what makes life worth living. A welcome romp of a read -- Brigid Schulte, award-winning journalist and author of the New York Times bestselling Overwhelmed and director of The Better Life Lab at New America
The Weekend Effect is a fastidiously researched book detailing how we collectively lost the art of weekending well... Onstad provides plenty for the stressed and time-poor to mull over -- Tanya Sweeney Irish Times