A day off from work is both a blessing and a curse. A well crafted day (or two) off can recharge your batteries and help you return to work ready to go. Do it wrong, and you'll end up bored for a day. With that in mind, here are a few ways to spend your time wisely.
It's summertime, and that means it's the perfect time to take on that laundry list of side projects you've had sitting around, relax to keep yourself cool in the heat, or just grill up some excellent food. With that, here are some of the best ways to turn that normal day off into a perfect one.
Beat the Heat
Summertime is awesome, but it's also unbearably hot in parts of the USA. Assuming you're not going to just hang out in the air conditioning all day long, you're going to need to institute a few tricks to keep yourself cool. Here are a few tips to make sure that temperature doesn't ruin your awesome day:
- Stay hydrated: The effects of dehydration can sneak up on you if you're not careful. The key here is to keep water on hand anyway you can, and drink as much as possible throughout the day. If you hate the taste of water you can trick yourself into liking it.
- Wear sunscreen: Wearing sunscreen is one of the easiest ways to protect yourself and it's a necessity during those hot summer days. That said, it's not as simple as you'd think, and picking out the right sunscreen and then applying it for maximum efficiency takes a little bit of effort. Really though, if you want to beat the heat, you should be sticking to the shade as much as possible.
- Keep bugs away: Bugs can ruin a perfect summer day pretty quickly, but thankfully we have a huge guide to protecting yourself from them. Of course, treatment only goes so far. If you really want to make today perfect, you can get rid of bugs completely.
- Cool yourself down: The above are all great ways to make a hot day more bearable, but let's be honest here: the worst part of the heat is how crappy you feel because of it. Thankfully, you can fight against the high temperatures without resorting to blasting the air conditioner all day. We've shown you how to keep yourself cool when you're sleeping before, and if you learn your body's quick cooling spots you can cool down with just a bit of water. If all else fails, we've shown you a few more ways to change your preception and keep cool regardless of the heat.
- Hit up the pool: If all else fails, the best way to cool off is to find a pool and jump in. Even if you don't have one freely available to you, it's possible to finangle you're way into a private pool. Once you're there, make sure you're up to date on your safety measures and you know what drowning looks like so you can save a life if need be.
With that, you should be able to maintain a comfortable temperature, beat the heat, and enjoy that perfect day off without worrying over all that sweat piling up on your forehead.
Grill Like a Champ
One of the nicest ways to spend a hot summer afternoon is in front of grill with a spatula in your hand. That alone is often good enough, but if you really want to kick start the experience you need to add a little more flavor into the mix. Here are a few ways to make that grilling experience truly spectacular.
- Prepare your grill: First things first: we need to get that grill going. If you're using charcoal, make sure you lay it out for maximum heat. Likewise, if you're using a gas grill, try some lava rocks to get a super high heat from your burners. If grilling really is your life, a backyard fire pit might be in order as well. If you need to, you can also clean up your grill before you start cooking with a coffee bath.
- Get your grilling tools: The right tools can truly make or break a good day of grilling. If you're looking for some upgrades, Grill Clips are awesome at keeping your veggies together, and the Stake is an insane combo-tool that might just make all other tools obsolete. If you need a serving dish, your muffin tin will do the trick.
- Prepare your food: Once the grill is fired up and your tools are in order, it's time to get your food ready to go. You have a ton of ways to go about this, from marinades to poaching. You can even go all out and spiral cut your hot dogs for maximum toppings, and don't forget to get the perfect steak with the right prep.
- Grill! Once everything's ready it's time for the fun part: grilling. We've shown you how to become a grill master before, from cooking the perfect steak to keeping fish from sticking to the grill, you can go from a barbecue amateur to a pro today.
With that, you'll throw the best barbecue ever, and that's a pretty solid way to make a day off perfect without too much effort.
Take On Those Side Projects You've Been Putting Off
Finally, one of the best ways to spend a day off is by accomplishing something awesome. In today's case, make something cool and finish up one of those side projects.
- Pick a project: The first thing you're going to want to do is pick a project to work on. If you're not sure where to start, our weekend projects and DIY projects are a good place to start for inspiration. You can make a lot of cool stuff in under a day, including Arduino boards, DSLR shoulder rigs, and plenty more.
- Gather your materials: Materials for DIY projects aren't always cheap. Thankfully, you can gather up a bunch of cheap materials pretty easily to save you money on the your projects, and you can get started with just about any hobby cheaply.
- Get started: With your project in mind and your materials in tow, it's time to get started. It's always a little complicated to get into something new, but it's a rewarding experience in the end. Thankfully, we've got plenty of starter projects for you, from electronics, home automation, composting, or the Raspberry Pi all the way over to coding, car repair, and more.
The perfect day off isn't that hard to crack, and even if you're hacking something together at the last minute you'll certainly have plenty to keep you busy.
Photo by Nemo, Nemo, Nemo, and Jacky Brown (Shutterstock).
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