Wait, it's Saturday? How to make the weekend shine in lockdown when days blur

Hosting the historic, first-ever livestreamed Saturday Night Live,” Tom Hanks made a point in the opening monologue that many Americans have become acutely aware of.

“There’s no such thing as Saturday anymore," Hanks said, speaking from his kitchen. "Every day is just today.”

He might have gone even further, pointing out that weekends have become endangered in the locked-down-at-home coronavirus era, as the days blur to vaguely different variations in a country sheltering in place.

"It's this blurring of the delineation of Monday through Friday. People used to say 'Thank God it's Friday,' But we have lost that sense of time," says life coach and human behavior expert Patrick Wanis. He maintains that it's important to take the extra effort to separate the weekend, or a specific time of rest, during the temporary lifestyle change.

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The Miami-based Wanis himself declines to take on nonessential work projects into the weekend to make those days special.

Others have moved weekly happy hours from bars to video chat. People are cooking in place of Saturday night meals at restaurants and trying to re-create spa experiences at home.

"You've got to create time to be calm, to be relaxed, to rejuvenate, to rest," Wanis says.

Driveway parties and Zoom happy hours mark the weekends now

Across the country, Americans have done their best to celebrate the weekend in unusual ways such as a socially distant weekend block party in Eugene, Oregon, organized by Mary Lou Vignola and her husband, Frank, on March 21. The party featured tables and chairs set up on driveways as neighbors socialized from a socially appropriate distance.

"Glee" actress Becca Tobin, one of three members of the lifestyle LadyGang podcast, works to maintain her Friday ritual of cleaning the house in the afternoon as if she were going to have her friends over. And she still gets ready to go "out."

"I shower, actually wash and dry my hair, put on a little makeup, jewelry, a cute outfit, and even shoes," Tobin says. "I prepare a really yummy cocktail for myself and join my standing appointment with my closest friends for 'Fancy Friday' cocktails on Zoom."

Fellow LadyGang podcaster Keltie Knight has been improvising on keeping her weekend foot massage or spa treatment ritual going at home. "I’ve been leaving my phone upstairs, putting a mask in my hair and having a glass of wine in the hot tub, and then getting out and slathering myself with delicious smelling lotion," Knight says. "It’s almost the same."

Actress Jane Seymour has dedicated her weekends to starting a new painting, a centering activity and her longtime passion. "It allows me to feel like I’m doing a reset. Leaving the previous week behind and getting a fresh perspective."

The British-born resident of Malibu, Calif., also carves time to cook a major meal on the weekend, which she shares with her fellow quarantine-r, her grown son Johnny. During the time they think about family not able to attend. "It’s a good way to feel connected to family when we’re not all physically able to be together right now. And I know that Johnny appreciates all of the home cooking," she says.

Cookbook author and mother of two Manuela Mazzocco keeps cooking at the center of her family-centered weekend routine, which she has worked to keep in place throughout California's stay-at-home orders.

"Cooking is most fun when done in company, while chatting and working together," says Mazzocco, who suggests small celebration enhancements such as popping open a bottle of something bubbly, playing music and setting the table with candles. "To make the weekend meal feel special and different, I start with a quick look at myself in the mirror and find what would make me feel special. A cute dress and lip gloss are all I need and what works for me."

'Enjoying your life is not disrespectful to the people who are suffering'

Comic and author Kristina Kuzmic says she is using the lessons she learned as a divorced one-time single mother to get through the pandemic. Remarried and living in a household with three children, she spends much of the week dealing with home-schooling and juggling her own work responsibilities, which includes vlogging her life for her 140,000 YouTube followers.

"But weekends are just fun. All the school routines are set aside. We forget sometimes that our kids are feeling stressed, too," Kuzmic says. "I'm a rule enforcer, but I'm also a fun enforcer. And you have to create that in times like this."

Kuzmic says it's crucial to laugh and enjoy moments with the family, even in the midst of a pandemic.

"It’s important to teach our kids that enjoying your life is not disrespectful to the people who are suffering," she says. "There’s a way to honor those people and wish the best for all of them. Don’t teach your children that their life has to stop."

Ultimately, experts such as Wanis believe a silver lining could be that the crisisbrings thoughtful life changes that could lead to healthy reprioritizing – an understanding that a weekend is something that has to be worked for and protected, which is something Americans were losing sight of.

"If you think back to your parents, your grandparents, there was a time when people actually did not work Saturday and Sunday. And then ask yourself: Who was mentally healthier, your grandparents or you? Most likely it was your grandparents," Wanis says. "There was structure and routine, there was more balance. This is the time for us to rebalance by reevaluating our life."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus survival: How to make weekends differ from workdays