This Personality Type Should Flip Weekdays & Weekends

As an introvert, one of my favorite experiments has been flipping my weekdays and weekends. That means instead of going out on the weekends like most people, I plan all my social activities for weekday evenings after work and then block off my entire weekend for myself. Here's why:

Most people work a nine-to-five and are already out of the house and around people the whole day because of it, so planning all other social activities for after work allows you to tick off your weekly "fun hangout" box on days when you're already socially switched "on." This way, you don't have to flip on that switch at all on the weekends, if you don't want to.

Most people will not stay out late on a weekday because of work the next morning—or at least would not judge you for throwing in the towel early. That makes it the perfect kind of social activity for the introvert, who usually has energy for only so much uninterrupted social time. You only have to be at the group gathering for an hour or two before it's over or at least socially acceptable to peace out.

Public spaces tend to be more crowded and noisier on weekends. For an introvert, all this activity can be overwhelming. We have a lower dopamine threshold and are therefore more easily stimulated than extroverts. What this means is that while the extrovert gets more incandescent and magnetic, the introvert starts shrinking.

This doesn't mean we spend all our time philosophizing and engaging in heavy existentialist discussion, of course. Introverts thrive on all sorts of explorations of meaning, from savoring new cuisines with like-minded foodies to attending interesting talks being held around town to simply picking up new skills with others. Book clubs and spirituality groups also satisfy these meaning cravings quite well. And what ties all of these activities together is that they're better done in smaller groups and can easily be explored in an hour or two after work before returning home at a reasonable hour.

Weekends provide an extended time period to fully engage in the introvert hangover, unlike the snatches of time at the end of each weekday, which enables a fuller extent of recharging our metaphorical batteries.

Scheduling all your social activities for the weekdays does involve some finagling and reprioritizing since you're not the only one in charge of the plans—you also need to convince the people you're socializing with to buy in. Here's how to successfully make the flip:

Feel overwhelmed "sorting out" your circle? First, decide what kind of people they are: healthy, ambivalent, or toxic. The healthy relationships are really the only ones worth keeping, especially for introverts who have limited emotional energy for keeping up with people. And you'll still have to decide how close the healthy people are to you, meaning which circle they exist in. My friend and fellow psychologist Dr. Jonathan Marshall suggests these reflective questions for deciding whom you should let into your inner circle:

When you curate your circle of people and honor your energy, it's important to be able to say no. Sometimes it's difficult to turn others down because we've been taught to people-please or because we don’t believe we have the permission to. Learning that we can say no with grace is often the first step. My friend and executive coach Vanessa Bennett says we have a limited amount of energy credits to spend every day, so if you spend it on people who don't enliven you or with whom you are merely going along with to play nice or because you can't say no, then you are depleting yourself. You are doing a disservice to yourself and the people important to you because you'll have less energy for them.

Here's my advice: Subscribe to a policy of only posting latergrams. Especially for introverts, updating your life on-the-fly in real time tends to feel like a 24/7 spotlight shining upon it and compromises your enjoyment and immersion in the experience or relationships—which you likely already struggle with as an introvert. Resolve to forget the metaphorical bull's ring of live Instagram Stories and accept that you'll almost always be posting later, in your own time, when you have the time and energy for it.

When someone asks you what you did this weekend, don't be afraid to share all the meaningful things you did at home, alone, by yourself. Be proud of your ability to take time for yourself and enjoy it.

At the end of the day, you don't need to make excuses to anyone for living the lifestyle that sustains you. By spending time on yourself, you buy back more time, meaning, and a healthier well-being. You also protect against burnout. Just because some people choose to spend their time in a certain way doesn't mean you need to follow suit or that the lifestyle that rejuvenates you is any less worthy.