How to Make Good Times Last a Little Longer

As I’m writing this, my kids are still two weeks away from starting school. Two weeks is a lot of time. It’s more days than they will have off for Christmas, or spring break, or for any vacation before next summer — and yet many of our conversations have centered on the start of school, as if it’s already happening.

The same phenomenon occurred last week during our family vacation at the beach. One of my children spent much time on the last two days lamenting that the vacation was almost over…even though two out of seven days isn’t a low proportion of time!

It is so easy to let our brains travel forward to times that we are either anxious about or assume will be less enjoyable than what we’re currently experiencing. But doing that cuts short the fun for no good reason. Fortunately, it’s pretty simple to ward off these future scaries with a little planning, so you can linger in the fun times that are still happening.

The “Sunday Scaries” are, of course, the most well-known example of this phenomenon. Somewhere around Sunday afternoon, even people who like their jobs can start worrying about the stresses of the workweek. Some people also spend much of Sunday preparing for the week ahead. While I like pre-made meals and well-chosen outfits as much as the next person, the net result of all this is that the weekend can feel…