How to return to the ritual of the weekend, for increased happiness, success and healthier relationships

'This is a book about how we won the weekend, and how we lost it. Mostly, it's a book about how to take it back.'

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.

'A welcome romp of a read' Brigid Schulte, author of the New York Times bestselling Overwhelmed