Sage receptionists and staff room philosophers have long taught that every day has its own emotion. Your week progresses from a case of the Mondays through Wednesday Hump Days to Thank God It's Fridays, looping around to the Sunday Blues, also known as the Sunday Scaries or the Sunday Sads. You survive that weekend anticlimax because you know everybody deals with it. Except some of them don't.

Have you ever found yourself dreading a leisurely activity you had eagerly scheduled days or weeks in advance?

If you're looking to have a relaxing weekend that's free of housework, this Friday cleaning routine is thorough enough to get things straightened, but fast enough to get you out for happy hour.

Whether you're planning a leisurely dinner party, a quiet weekend with the kids or a machiavellian plan to get laid, this flowchart will point you towards the most suitable board games for any situation.

After two four-day weeks in a row, maybe it's time to actually do something. Fill in those weekend gaps with these five ideas from the past week on Lifehacker:

No money? No problem! Here's five ideas from the last week on Lifehacker that won't cost you a cent.

Sometimes, the weekend is about just having time with your friends and family. Sometimes it's about watching strangely reformed 90s pop bands. And sometimes it's about catching up with the best tech hints from the past week on Lifehacker:

Work out how much international carry-on luggage you can get away with
If you're a Commonwealth Bank customer, check out the mobile NetBank site
Pick a better bank account with Fumzup
Teach your keyword bookmarks not to misbehave
Equip your BlackBerry for voice search

I'm going to spend part of the weekend photographing restored steam trains, at which point our recent post about taking HDR photos might well come in handy. Here's some other tips from the past week that could prove useful if you get a spare minute:

Try out the five-minute prison workout
Buy some discount iTunes cards at Woolies before the sale ends
Download IE8 before the Windows Update rush starts
Video your elderly relatives to get a chance of putting them on the ABC
If you're tempted by Nokia's Comes With Music, which officially launched on March 20, check our cost benefit analysis before coughing up

Tom Baker likes to spend his weekend mowing lawns and babbling, but there's plenty of other ways to fill in those precious 48 hours. If you've got an inclination to get a bit more techie, check out these ideas from Lifehacker you may have missed during the week:

Find yourself a suitable surfing beach on your mobile phone
Consider whether naked DSL could save you money
Turn your digital camera into a pinhole camera, for nostalgia's sake
Create weird URL shortcuts
Benchmark your hard drive (and work out if it's too blame for all those appalling performance problems)

Naturally, we're not opposed to a cocktail or two. But if you do feel the urge to plonk yourself in front of the PC this weekend, here are five ideas from the last week on Lifehacker that you might care to explore:

Find out if there's any cafés near you with free Wi-Fi using Laptopfriendlycafes.com
Get that nightclub experience without leaving home by checking out Awdio's live streaming from clubs
Get less distracted next week by setting up a tangents log
Back up your DRM-protected music by burning it to CD -- after all, even Microsoft says it's OK
Check out the revamped version of Lifehacker favourite Foxmarks, now known as Xmarks

Sleep isn't everything! Give your leisure activities a Lifehacker tinge and check out these ideas from the past week:

Learn how to complete a high-speed email cleanup
Check out the Google Search box on Windows (warning: not for the IE-phobic)
Decide whether a Comes With Music phone makes sense
Build yourself some flash cards with Cramberry (warning: not for the study-phobic)
Get your iTunes lyrics database up-to-date

Life's a beach . . . but you've still got time to check out these handy hints from the past week:

Keep up-to-date with Lifehacker via our new Twitter feed
Learn how to disable iPhone auto-correct on the fly
Change the colours in your Gmail theme
Remind yourself of the BlackBerry's less-used functions
Fix that older PC with the Computer Repair Utility Kit

It's not all about romance! Relax, recharge, reboot: here's some of the top tech tips from the past week to pursue if you get a spare minute.

Double-check whether your ISP is taking part in filter trials
Find the missing manuals for your older household appliances
Check out some official YouTube downloads
Use Flickit and your iPhone to sort your Flickr photo collection
Backup your DVD collection with DVDSmith

There's more to life than escaping the weather! Get in tip-top tech shape with these tips from the last week on Lifehacker:

Play around with the Ubiquity Firefox interface
Try and sort out your finances with ANZ Money Manager
Upgrade to the final version of Skype 4.0
Find some new iTunes music with I Like B-Sides
Customise your AutoPlay dialog in Vista

For a large portion of the Australian population, plunging into an ice-cold pool is obviously the preferred option. But when you venture back inside and pray the air conditioning is still working, you can also try out these life-enhancing tech tips from the last week on Lifehacker:

See if offline Gmail has showed up in your account yet (no luck for me so far)
Find the perfect PC wallpaper with a sneaky Google trick
Check if you're following Australia's top Twitter users
Make sure your in-ear headphones are working properly
Find out if buying a movie ticket via your phone actually saves any time

We're sure you've got the patriotism/BBQ/concert side sorted, but if you get some spare time over the long weekend, here's five ideas from the past week worth following up:

Set up a GiveDo.com search for your favourite charity
Get your pet a date with MyPetNeedsLove
Try out Plinky as a means of maintaining your web presence
Start using SpendingDiary to avoid personal fiscal chaos
Find the best of Twitter on EpicTweet

Lifehacker will continue to publish US posts over the weekend; normal Aussie service will resume on Tuesday.

Whether next week is bringing Linux goodness in Tasmania, the dreaded return to work or yet another round of "haven't the school holidays ended yet?", get a sense of accomplishment by catching up with these tips from the last week:

Make sure your computer doesn't catch fire in the summer heat
Test out YouTube TV on your Wii or PS3
Log into that old Hotmail account and set it up for POP3 access
Try out the Windows 7 beta on your Mac and see how the other 90% will soon live
Set up some nifty multi-monitor wallpaper

While I continue to hunt down new tech ideas at CES in Vegas, you can have an altogether more relaxing time of it and catch up with some of this week's hints:

Grab yourself a legitimate test copy of the Windows 7 beta
Make some plans for the ideal home office
Check if your budget allows too much for tech
Get your Mac photos sorted with the new Picasa release
Clean your toilet with Coke (no lie!)

OK, it might be holiday season, but there's still plenty of new stuff kicking around Lifehacker. Here's five ideas from the last week to consider pursuing when you're not otherwise having fun:

Start shedding that Christmas poundage with Weightbot
Photograph your keys for use in case of an emergency
Check out the best beta releases from last year
Get a free logo for that new business idea
Fill out the Australian Broadband Survey