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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of IHeart Radio.

Good morning. This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is to create your recipe for a good long weekend.

When you know what makes time off work feel special for you, you will be able to put these components together easily in the future.

So this episode is first airing on Juneteenth, 2026 in the United States, our newest federal

holiday, one celebrating emancipation.

Lots of communities will have festivals and events, and lots of people will have the day off work.

This year, Juneteenth falls on a Friday, which means that this is a long summer weekend for many people.

But even if you don't have the day off, long weekends happen with some regularity,

whether for Memorial Day or Labor Day, or if your office here in the U.S. will be closed for

the Friday before the 4th of July weekend.

Other countries obviously have their own holidays.

These little breaks in the schedule can offer the opportunity for rejuvenation and adventures and meaning.

However, in many cases, like all units of time, long weekends can be spent unintentionally.

You may want to do nothing, but it is impossible to do nothing.

You will do something, but it might not be nearly as rejuvenating as if you had put some thought into it.

Think lots of scrolling, half-hearted email checks, puttering around the house, making a little progress on a project,

but not enough to feel accomplished, and driving kids, various places. So instead, going into any

long weekend, do a few things to make it more enjoyable, relaxing, and memorable. Figure out what a good long weekend looks like for you, and then you can

repeat these components in the future. For me, the recipe for a good long weekend first starts

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