Fridays: Reinvented

Spend more time in nature and hike at least 500 km before the snow comes down. Already have most of the destinations chosen in Estonia, Finland and Sweden. In addition to that I would like to take my dog, park my campervan somewhere by the sea and spend as many nights as possible in the wilderness. 

 I’ll keep track of every kilometre wandering. 

I’ve always wanted to learn to golf! Living in the country where the game was invented, I’ve never had a chance to learn the sport. I figured that Fridays alone on a course would be great for everyone else’s wellbeing (safety) as well as my own throughout this journey! Any other spare time I plan on seeing as much of Europe as possible on my long weekends.

I’ve set a goal that I want to be able to get through an 18 course hole without losing 10 golf balls by the end of 2022. In terms of travel, my wife and I have set a goal to try and do a trip every month this year, so we’ll use that as a measurement of success!

I’m always spontaneous during my weekends, so I’ll, possibly, be discovering Estonia or even Europe. I’m a big fan of learning new things, so, definitely, I’ll learn Estonian and another other language. A fan of walking and hiking, I’ll walk around and discover the smallest and most beautiful things around Tallinn as well. Summing it up, I’ll have more free time to do whatever I want, like and enjoy <3.

My success or progress is always measured by my happiness, hitting goals and living my dreams, as living here.

One of the main things that drew me to London was how easy it is to travel here. Being born and raised in New Zealand, it was always a huge journey to get anywhere else in the world! I’m planning on using my weekends to explore the UK and Europe – whether it’s hiking across the highlands, dancing at a music festival in Barcelona, or drinking coffee in Amsterdam.

I’ll be measuring my success by the stamps collected on my passport!

Fridays will give me an opportunity for precious me-time and recharge before spending the weekend with family and friends. I plan to have long mornings at home or in a cozy cafe, read, listen to podcasts, and take long walks. This will be followed by running some personal errands that I don’t have to try to fit in during work hours anymore. At the end of the day, I will be energised and ready for the weekend activities.

Well, one way is to track how many books and podcasts I have finished when compared to the previous period.. But what will be most important, in my opinion, is my health – an increased level of relaxation, happiness, and energy, which will have a positive effect on the closest people around me, on my work, and on my future in general. Three-day weekends are like short vacations for your mind & body each week!

I have been in Estonia for 6 years and I’ve been married to an Estonian for 15 years and I tried to learn Estonian 3 times, unsuccessfully. The previous times I tried during work time, companies were providing courses, but as it was during work time, plenty of times I needed to prioritize between that and work, and work won many times which caused that little by little I stopped. Then, in the evenings or weekends I wanted to be with the kids or doing sports, so never got to try there because of a lack of time, energy and priorities. Well, I don’t have an excuse anymore for having Fridays off. I‘m very bad with languages, that’s why I thought a lot about committing to it or not, but the thing is that I feel terribly sorry when I go to visit my wife’s parents and I cannot talk to them. Especially with the father, who is a handyman and we share a lot of interest in building stuff. I never managed to have a proper conversation with him.

I think it’s time to set a goal. Use the Fridays for intensive Estonian courses (time is not a problem now) and commit that by the end of the year (6 months) I will be able to manage casual conversations with my parents in law and any other Estonian.

Quality time with my family. Working full time, having two kids and being someone who just loves me-time, can be tricky. Sometimes, the weekends are even busier for me than the work-week itself and very often, practical household and errands related activities take proportionally more of it than I would like. Therefore, I am over the top happy to have one additional day off every week. On Fridays, I will cover the home “to-do list” and take time for myself – fill my cup by reading, working out, visiting the SPA or planning a lunch with a friend I have not seen for a while. This helps me to be more energized, spontaneous and happy during the weekend when I spend time with my family. Having two full days for my family allows us to take more carefree quality time for wandering around the forests and hiking trails, planning weekend getaways and other things that bring us together. It does not always need to be an activity – being present and not thinking about the things that need to be done is a gift itself. 

Spending time with my kids and family is a reward difficult to measure. To have a tangible goal – I will take photographs and create a yearly memory book with the pictures and stories from our time together.

I will be taking my cooking skills to the next level – traveling through cookbooks! I plan to discover and try out new flavours and recipes from the countries I have traveled to and continue my master’s studies at the university.

Regarding master’s studies, it is simple – the success is straightforward – getting the degree! Measuring success with cooking is a bit more challenging – as I have traveled to 84 countries (and counting!), I have 84 new dishes to prepare and 84 Fridays to complete the challenge! So ticking off the list one by one is a success!

As I have lived abroad for most of my adult life, I know the struggle of finding good accommodation for a short term stay in a foreign city. I will use my Fridays to start an initiative called Tallinn Student to help foreign students find suitable accommodation to stay in Tallinn.

I have helped at least 10 exchange students / young professionals find their new home.

I plan to use the time predominantly for self-development in three areas: physical health, mental health, and creative output. The physical side would mean going to the gym, going for a run, or even a long walk to discover new parts of London. To improve my mental health I’ll be aiming for at least 10 minutes of meditation in the morning followed by a nice cup of coffee at home or a cafe with a book. I’ve always felt that creating or being creative is one of the best ways to give meaning to your days and time. I taught myself how to play guitar when I was younger but sadly didn’t continue the habit of learning, so would love to pick it back up or even potentially try a new instrument. I’ll also attempt to reignite my old passion for writing fiction…

I plan on keeping a weekly journal, where I’ll record and make entries on what happened in the previous week and how I felt about it (I sort of already do this).

First ten years of my career I used to work as a software developer, switching later to less and less technical specialities, while still doing some pet projects in my spare time. Several years ago a friend told me that there appeared a cool new kid on the block, a programming language called Julia, and suggested that I needed to learn it for sure – because of the name. I also thought it was a cool idea, but of course the priority of this undertaking was not really high enough to give it proper time in a busy life, so I never started it. I learn a lot for my profession, but my technical skills have been degrading all the time and I really have been regretting this, as programming was my passion for many years. So now I am going to use this great opportunity of one more free day to accelerate my learnings in all professional areas overall and to finally start learning the programming language with such a wonderful name 🙂 

Well, I expect to be no less than an expert of Julia programming language by the end of 2022 🙂

I will bring back spontaneous decisions on Fridays. Doing things on the fly. What I feel like and when I feel like. Something I miss from high-school & uni days.

The main way to measure this is by happiness levels. That’s the beauty of being spontaneous. Those can be activities, new or old hobbies, hanging with friends. Achieving this extra level of freedom and happiness will be the biggest prize.