How Successful People Spend Their Sundays

When you’re working hard all week, how you choose to spend your downtime matters. Here are ways nine successful entrepreneurs and professionals spend their Sundays.

Spend time with family.

When there’s little time to spend time with family during the busy work week, Sundays are ideal for making up that time. Bobbi Brown, makeup artist and founder and CCO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, has a weekly routine: “We’ll have what we call family dinner. About eight to 12 people…I’m always calling last minute begging the restaurants to let us in.”

Catch up on reading.

Carving out time for hobbies allows you to greet Monday refreshed and reinvigorated. Actress Uzo Abuda spends Sundays with a good book: “I’m usually in bed by 10, 10:30 — 11, we’re pushing it. I’ll start reading. I just finished reading this book, “Ruby,” by Cynthia Bond, which was excellent. “Redefining Realness” is my next book.”
Prep food for the week.

Using Sundays to plan ahead will give you a running start to the week. Caryl M. Stern, president and CEO of the U.S. fund for UNICEF, does just that: “We have a book in our house, and I will write down things for the week: what days I’m going to be away and what’s everybody going to eat when I’m away. So Sunday becomes a cooking day. I bake for my kid who’s away at college. I will usually bake him muffins. I’m baking for my son for the same reason I’m making eggs for the dog: he knows he’s being thought of.”

Do a bit of maintenance.

On Sundays, Carley Roney, cofounder of XO Group, does both “virtual” and “real” self-maintenance: “I catch up on the week’s weddings on social. I’ll take pictures of brides and re-gram them. I’ll say congratulations to any brides. I’ll search The Knot hashtag on Twitter… at some point in this day, I take the longest shower ever. That’s the ‘real me’ maintenance. I am invisible.”

Find creative inspiration.

Sundays provide the perfect opportunity for vital thinking time, ensuring opportunities for innovation. Mark Fisher, founder of Mark Fisher Fitness, spends his Sundays brainstorming: “I try to spend some time thinking of new ways to make fitness fun. I think the aesthetic of the clubhouse comes from the antics of green rooms in regional theater. I try to bring that sense of play and tomfoolery into working out… so I try to sit quietly and think of new ideas.”

Work on writing.

Maxwell Ryan, founder of Apartment Therapy, doesn’t stop working on Sundays: “I open up the computer and start to get to work for the next day. I’ll have about two to three hours of dealing with email and writing. I write one piece every day. I should do it farther than a day ahead, but right now I’m only working one day in advance.”

Connect with their network.

There are no breaks when it comes to networking. Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, uses Sundays for connecting, or what she calls cyberstalking: “I get to stalk people on Sundays. Some of it is stalking the girls. In 2012, when we had 20 girls, I knew where they were in school, what apps they had built, who their prom date was. Now that we’ve taught over 3,000 girls, social media gives me the chance to see what they’re up to. One of the reasons that Sheryl Sandberg became a really good friend of Girls Who Code is I stalked her. I successfully stalked Travis Kalanick, who’s the Uber C.E.O. I am really trying to get Marissa Mayer and Eric Schmidt physically in the classroom.”

Get some culture.

Television personality and fashion consultant Tim Gunn takes a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art each Sunday: “I’ve been a member since 1985. I’m a huge lover of art. I go to the Greek and Roman Galleries first. I’ll choose different objects to fixate upon. A trip to the Met can be very emotional. There are paintings there that just lift me off the ground. I feel buoyant.”

Check in on the business.

Chef Dale Talde knows that, in the restaurant business, Sundays are not for resting: “Maybe around 11:30, we say, ‘Hey, let’s go to bed.’ I check all the restaurants one last time. We have a sales system that will let you know how sales were. All of our G.M.s and chefs will write emails of how the day went. If anything went wrong, I’ll address that. The human element is the hardest part of the whole business. If it’s crazy, like some guy got in a fight and got arrested, I’ll reply. But if it’s a normal Sunday, which it never is, I’ll just be like, ‘Hey, guys. Good job, keep up the good work.’ I try not to think or else I won’t go to bed. Sometimes it doesn’t work; I’m up all night.”

How do you spend your Sundays? Share in the comments!