How did you spend your day today
How did you spend your day today
How Did You Spend Your Day?
This morning, sometime after 4 AM, just before the sky started to lighten, I fell asleep. I usually know that it’s time for me once some of my favorite east-coast people, like Laurie Halse Anderson, start sending out their “good morning” tweets.
I didn’t wake up until just before 7 PM, when the Sun started slanting low through the other window. Around the time when people are returning home, settling down for dinner with their families, I’m just rolling out of bed.
This tends to be my body’s default state when I have nothing to do. Maybe it’s residual from my year and a half of living on a grave shift, but I don’t think so. I think this my body returning to a kind of primal state: I fall asleep when I’m too tired to stay up, I wake up when my body tells me to wake up.
This is the depression roaring strong.
I think of what other people did during the day: they worked on their novels, they worked on curing diseases, they spent time with their families, they spent time with their friends. They went on stage, went on road trips, went on epic Twitter rants.
And all I did was sleep, and sleep, and sleep. And wake up, still tired, just barely above that sleeping state, ready for a long night of nothing before going back to sleep again.
I wish I was more productive. I wish I was more energetic. I wish I had a means of leaving the house and going out and doing something amazing. But I’m just stuck in here: inside my body, inside this house, inside this depression, inside this life.
How did you spend your day today
You want spend. How did you spend your day?
How did you pass your day today sounds like how a funeral director speaks, while trying to sell you a coffin.
You want spend. How did you spend your day?
How did you pass your day today sounds like how a funeral director speaks, while trying to sell you a coffin.
@amuzeshi How did you spend the day today?
You could use “pass” to say “How did you pass the time today?” But it’s not very common. I might only use this if we were talking about a prolonged period where someone would be bored, like “how did you pass the time while you were in jail?”
@amuzeshi a little unnatural,
either «how did you pass your TIME today» but «pass» is a bit formal for everyday speech.
more common
«how did you SPEND your day/time today» is better
Символ показывает уровень знания интересующего вас языка и вашу подготовку. Выбирая ваш уровень знания языка, вы говорите пользователям как им нужно писать, чтобы вы могли их понять.
Мне трудно понимать даже короткие ответы на данном языке.
Могу задавать простые вопросы и понимаю простые ответы.
Могу формулировать все виды общих вопросов. Понимаю ответы средней длины и сложности.
Понимаю ответы любой длины и сложности.
Решайте свои проблемы проще в приложении!
( 30 698 )
Ask MetaFilter
I’m having trouble trusting the advice I receive, because it feels like those who execute it must be absolutely perfect, and I could never be like them. The more honest, the better, I want to know what people actually do.
If you read, how long did you plan to read for? How long did you actually spend reading? How long does your browser history say that you’ve spent on links from metafilter? How long did your commute take? How long of your time at work was actually spent on work?
When I get home I check my own mailbox, then I cook supper for hubby and myself. I clean up the kitchen afterwards and feed the dog. The time I get done doing this is usually around 6:15 pm. Then I go in our computer room and shut the door, pop in a DVD of a Pilates routine and exercise for 20 minutes (makes me feel good to do this, to make it a habit is the key).
Then I get on internet and check my emails, go to Facebook and read a few post for about 10 minutes. I usually scan Ask Metafilter because I like to read the questions and answers. I probably spend about 10 minutes doing that. Sometimes I read the news too.
I hope this is what you were wanting, if not I feel pretty silly. 😉
posted by just asking at 4:27 PM on September 4, 2016 [6 favorites]
I am currently not working because I am expecting a baby in a few weeks. My typical weekday:
Get up when my husband does, make his lunch and then goof off online (email, RSS feeds etc) until he leaves. Watch YouTube or listen to a podcast while I eat breakfast.
Then in the morning I do stuff which must be done at home (laundry, cleaning, stuff to get baby’s room ready; right now, I am sorting and bagging surplus Lego to sell since we have too much and need to make space for baby toys).
I eat lunch at home usually, then pack up my laptop and walk to a nearby coffee shop. I work on some freelance projects for a few hours, then come home, do a workout and have a shower. Husband gets home shortly thereafter, and we spend the evening together, usually going to bed around 9:30 to watch Netlix together. If he wants to go sleep early, I will go read for a bit.
posted by ficbot at 4:42 PM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Today was Sunday. My alarm went off about 10.30am, I snoozed it til 11am. Got up and made breakfast, cleaned down the counter tops and oven top while I did it. Sat and ate breakfast while re-reading an easy book that was lying around. Meant to only do that briefly but my sofa was so comfy I stayed there reading til gone 12pm and shelved the plans I’d had to sort out some of my old clothes for charity. Threw some clothes on, walked down to the bus stop and got the bus to a place I do a little volunteering. I was there 1pm til 3pm. Stopped at the supermarket on the way home, came in and ate lunch about 4pm til 4.30pm, reading the book again. Sat on the sofa with my laptop doing some personal admin til just before 6pm. Made a very hurried stir fry and wolfed it down, headed out about about 6.30pm to go to the cinema with a friend. One beer after the film and home. A bit more personal admin, then an hour or more when I should have been going to bed but instead was noodling about on facebook/AskMe etc (will stop after this and go to bed, honest).
This was unusually productive for me, especially for a weekend. Some days I walk from my bed to the sofa and am there most of the day, watching telly, going online, reading, snoozing, eating etc. It’s totally brilliant. Though I do usually feel as if I should be doing more productive things. If I have a day like that I might go out for a walk or run in the evening just so I’ve seen some daylight.
Go to bed some time after midnight.
posted by penguin pie at 4:47 PM on September 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
Wake up at 6:20, brush teeth, make coffee, take dog out, smoke a cigarette, drive 30 minutes to work. Stay at work usually 9-10 hours, have a quick lunch at my desk, a few smoke breaks, drive home. When I get home I have to take out the dog right away and start dinner. Dinner is sometimes not done until 8:30-9ish depending on how busy of a work day it was.
After dinner I usually spend about an hour watching tv, drinking wine, getting ready for bed. Take dog out one more time. Sleep. I like to be in bed by 10pm.
Do it all again.
Weekends maybe I’ll go into work for 3-5 hours. Try to get normal life stuff done, like laundry and spending time with the dog and my boyfriend. We’ll go bowling or see a movie or go out to dinner. On Sundays I take the dog to the dog park.
posted by kbennett289 at 4:50 PM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Free time in the evenings I usually spend browsing the net or on my hobbies.
My work day is fairly unstructured; sometimes it is busy, sometimes it is incredibly slow, but I spend a fair amount of time just reading news and occasionally browsing blogs. Mornings are busiest for me, then it generally tapers off throughout the rest of the day. I go out to buy breakfast and/or lunch and eat it on the desk.
Also, I feel like I have way more free time than anyone I know. Everyone is always talking about how ‘busy’ they are, and I have hours every day to just twiddle my fingers at home. I’m guessing my secret is 1) a short commute 2) extremely short morning routine and 3) not having children or much of a social life.
posted by karakumy at 4:50 PM on September 4, 2016 [7 favorites]
I «waste» a lot of time doing not much. On work days I get up at 5, drink coffee, go for a walk, put on my semi-grownup clothes and drive to work. At work I spend a lot of time wandering around on the interwebs, but I’m a reference librarian so I’m free to do that when I’m not helping students or faculty, or teaching a research skills class. I don’t spend time online doing super-silly stuff, I read a lot of news, a lot of articles.
On my way home I pick up my favorite 11 year old and we hang out. Sometimes we go swimming, other days we just chill, reading, messing around, until her dad gets home. We cook most every night but usually quick stuff. The kitchen is the only room that gets cleaned up every day. The rest of the house only when it gets too messy.
I’m usually in bed by 9 and asleep by 10.
Sometimes on weekends I just read, nap, eat, read some more.
posted by mareli at 4:50 PM on September 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
I get up at 6 in the summer or closer to 7 in the winter — it’s easier to get up early when the sun’s up already. I make coffee for me and my partner, eat breakfast, some mornings I shower and most mornings I shave, and then I head to work. Some days when I’m feeling super ambitious I do that by bike, or I bike partway and then take a bus the rest of the way. Most days, though, I do the whole distance on public transit, which takes between an hour and an hour and a half (ugh). I amuse myself on the bus by listening to podcasts, poking social media on my phone, or sometimes reading a book.
There’s a lot of seasonal variation in my workload. Sometimes I’m really working for eight hours a day. Often, I do more like two or three hours of real work, and spend the rest of the time talking to coworkers, puttering around doing vaguely work-related things (like reading blog posts relevant to my field), or just goofing off online. I take a break for lunch around noon, and leave sometime between 4 and 7 depending on how much there is to be done. Once a week I’ll stop at the grocery store on my way home; otherwise I go straight home.
Most nights I cook dinner for me and my partner. Some nights I go out to an activity instead, or order takeout. If I’m not out at an activity we’ll usually watch a bit of TV, or I’ll hang out and watch while she plays video games, or we’ll have video chat time with our girlfriend who lives in another state. Sometimes we’ll do laundry in the background, or fold laundry while watching TV. I try to be in bed by 10 but more often it’s closer to 11 or 12.
There’s a lot about this routine that I find unsatisfying. I spend a lot of my day killing time (on the bus, or at work when there’s little to do) and not a lot of time doing things that interest me. I also have depression, which makes it easy to get in a rut and hard to get out of it. But it’s a pretty comfortable routine all things considered and there are definitely times in my life when I’ve had it much harder.
posted by nebulawindphone at 4:51 PM on September 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
It’s summer and I’m a grad student, so my schedule is a bit irregular right now.
Get up between 7:30 and 8:30 (highly variable). If I haven’t showered in more than one day and I’m not a sleepyhead, shower. Blowdry hair quickly. Get dressed quickly (shorts, top, shoes, denim jacket for office air conditioning). Put on lipstick, sunscreen, no other makeup. Eat bowl of cereal or grab yogurt from refrigerator. Walk to work for 20 minutes while listening to podcasts and drinking La Croix.
Get to work at 10:00, clock in, make tea in office kitchen. Hide Slack and email in an attempt to get something done. Clock out 20 minutes for lunch. Screw around on internet throughout the day, usually filling out scholarship/fellowship applications, taking care of bills, whatever. Clock out around 6:00, walk home while listening to podcasts, stopping to pick up things for dinner if needed. Thinking about dinner is a big part of my day in the cold, drab office.
Get home, put laptop back at desk, chat with boyfriend for 30 minutes or so while decompressing (drinking water, eating snack of usually fruit or bread + butter). Do research and group chat with fellow researchers for 2-3 hours at computer. Start making dinner, which usually involves putting water on the stove or throwing vegetables in the oven to roast. Eat dinner with boyfriend. If lucky, watch TV show while eating dinner and chill out for a couple hours. If not lucky, eat for about 20 minutes, then go back to desk to work until about 12:00-1:00 AM. Sometimes browse online shopping or do other distractions while running programs on computer. Brush teeth, go to bed.
On the weekend, sleep until 10:00 or 11:00. Usually shower, get dressed, go on walk with boyfriend to get coffee or go to the bookstore/library or get groceries, whatever gets us out of the house. Get back by 2:00-3:00 PM and work at desk, with plenty of goofing off and chatting in between. Go to bed around 2:00-3:00 AM.
posted by stoneandstar at 5:12 PM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
6:45 AM: unwillingly got out of bed because my son woke up and Sundays are my day to get up with him
7 AM: stick breakfast and a tv show in front of child, drink tea, make my own breakfast, internet
8 AM: supervise kid playing some computer games, more internet with divided attention
9AM: grocery shopping, errand running
11 AM: return home, put groceries away, hand kid off to husband, rest for a few minutes (internet on phone)
11:30: volunteering (canvassing for Hillary)
3:30: stop at Home Depot, pick up some materials for ongoing project
4:30 Back home, enlist kid in painting project, paint chicken run, keep one eye on kid while he drenches himself with the hose in the back yard
6PM: dinner with family
7PM: supervise kid while he plays in the front yard
7:30: kid bedtime
And now I’m sitting here in my bedroom on my phone. I’m about to take a shower. And you can assume that I am feverishly refreshing the current MeFi election thread on my phone as time and circumstances allow, many times a day.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:22 PM on September 4, 2016 [3 favorites]
I’ve been going through a rough patch as well. I gave myself permission to just do what I can to get through the day, gradually adding a new small thing each month (since May). You don’t need to be a super-hero, but it’s good to have a baseline level of functioning.
So this summer my routine on workdays is to wake up at 7:30, make breakfast of yogurt and fruit, go online until 8. This month I’ve added doing 10 min sun salutations. At 8 I get dressed, then water the plants on my balcony. I would like to leave for work at 8:30 but lately it’s closer to 8:45, even 9. I walk to a bakery where I get coffee and a croissant, then walk to a farther subway stop. The whole walk takes 15 minutes. It’s my favorite part of the day. I’m usually in the office by 10, but I should be there at 9:30. Lunch from 2-3. I leave at 6:30. I walk to a farther subway stop again, about 30 minutes. I usually get home around 7:30. Twice a week I go to a nearby yoga class, which means I leave home at 8 and am back at 9:30. In the last couple of months I just surf or watch videos in the evenings. On non-yoga nights I might stop for groceries. Dinner has been cold rotisserie chicken. At 10 I start to get ready for bed. This month that will include making sure there are no dirty dishes in the sink. Sometimes I don’t actually get to bed until midnight.
posted by maggiemaggie at 5:30 PM on September 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
I mentioned being accountable. I have used Health Month and Habitica for this with great success. I also really love Rescue Time for tracking what I do on the computer. I have it pop up little «yay, nice work!» messages every two hours and I love seeing those.
Best of luck. The key is finding what works for you, being willing to fail at that process without beating yourself up is also crucial. Try stuff and see what gives you the quality of life you need. Good luck!
posted by sockermom at 5:49 PM on September 4, 2016 [13 favorites]
Best answer: Typical weekday:
I’ve started keeping a bullet journal, and here are the entries for the last week:
Monday: vacuum, remake bed, made tortillas, picked up a friend’s kid from daycare after her car broke down
Tuesday: pay bills, finish laundry, call Mom and Dad, haircut, contacted by a potential employer, a friend stopped by, a guy asked me out, finished one book (Patient H.M., which I picked up after reading a NYT book about the subject) and started another (The Berlin Stories, for a book club.)
Wednesday: renewed sports membership, sent an email to friends regarding a party we were planning, go to library, ran, phone interview, groceries.
Thursday: ran, met my mother for lunch, got some paperwork done for a citizenship application, had a date with a dude.
Friday: (I took PTO) ran, cleaned my house, made bagels, visited a high school friend, went on a small bar crawl for a friend’s birthday, threw and attended a surprise birthday party
Saturday: rowing practice, had a bunch of people over for breakfast, bought an exercise bike, went to a friends’ house.
Evenings vary. I may have a meeting or a date or dinner with a friend. If not I tend to go home and surf the internet, which I’m not proud of. Bed around 9.30 or 10.00.
posted by bunderful at 6:05 PM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yesterday was Saturday. I woke up at 8:30 with not much appetite and no half and half in the fridge, so instead of making coffee right away I got dressed and picked up half and half across the street. Then I puttered around my apartment picking things up, petting my rabbit when she demanded my attention, and reading Metafilter, and finally got around to coffee and breakfast at 10:30. Water takes a few minutes to boil and coffee takes four minutes to brew, and in those times I often get distracted by either washing the dishes or internetting.
I had errands to run but I got derailed by suddenly having the idea to put some old throw pillow inserts into a new cushion cover, so when I finally went out into the world it was probably almost noon. I walked ten minutes to the train, rode it a couple miles east, got one errand done, and stopped for lunch at 1ish. Then service at lunch was ridiculously slow, and my destination for the next errand closed at 3, so I couldn’t make it there in time and went home instead. Chores until 5, mostly shuffling various objects in and out of my apartment and taking trash out, with interludes of internetting to catch my breath and post a thing to Craigslist. Out for a run, close to home, for about a half hour. Then catching my breath again for about fifteen minutes, a shower for about ten minutes, and a further twenty to wrangle my hair and figure out a new outfit. Then I had a date, tacos and overnight, which started later than we had intended. It was not a perfect, maximally productive weekend day, but the parts that were under my control were pretty good.
Things that take longer than anticipated: anything interrupted by falling into the internet, of course, but getting ready to leave the house is the big one. There is plenty of self-care baked into my morning routine, I also don’t like a rushed morning; but sometimes it devolves into procrastinating and anxious fussing. Most mornings I listen to the radio which helps me pay attention to the rhythm of the morning a little; if I’m still in my apartment and they’re playing trivia on the morning show, that means it’s 8:30 and I’m running late, which happens often.
posted by clavicle at 6:20 PM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
6.30 wake to alarm, maybe snooze it a few times, read Internet
7.45 let dogs out, coffee from pre-programmed pot into travel mug, give dogs food, kiss dogs and husband goodbye
8.15 work, meetings, kick butts, meetings, take names, meetings, breakfast and lunch at my desk, meetings
4.30 commute home
5.00 kiss husband and dogs hello, ask everyone how their day was, tell them about mine while throwing a tennis ball down the hallway
5.15 change clothes, sometimes gym, sometimes take dogs and husband to the dog park, sometimes read Internet, sometimes have sex
6.30 help husband make dinner, ignore pleas of starving dogs who haven’t seen food in days
7.15 eat dinner, feed dogs, watch streaming tv
8.45 clean kitchen, run dishwasher
9.30 brush the dogs’ teeth that are FALLING OUT OF THEIR FACES because thays what happens to dirty teeth the moment the clock strikes 9.30, let dogs out, stand over their bowls while they eat whatever was left from dinner because they need reassurance
9.45 sometimes shower, brush teeth, wash face
10.00 in bed, read book or Internet, sometimes have sex
11.30ish turn off lights, put on eye mask and go to sleep
posted by rhapsodie at 6:24 PM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Free day for me today and it was way more packed with people than it normally is.
Woke up at 7:40 and fed the dog
Had coffee and sat in the living room with the news on in the background while I read all the internet pages I like (some newsy, many trashy) until 10:15
Showered
11am, a family friend made brunch for a bunch of us at the house of another friend who just got home from brain surgery. Reaffirmed my love of bacon and gratitude I’ve never needed brain surgery.
1:00, sat outside in a lounge chair to read a book. Promptly fell asleep and woke myself up snoring a few times. Bacon and pancakes make me sleepy.
2:30, woke up for good and actually read the book for a few hours.
5:30 to 6:30, spent too much time trying to move ahead on Candy Crush Soda
7:00, neighbor had a labor day weekend bbq and I went. Even though I was dreading socializing with people I didn’t know, I ended up having a great time and knowing more people than I thought I would. Made a mental note to myself to remember that always happens, but will forget the next time I’m dreading a social event.
9:30, typing this with a movie on in the background that I’m totally not watching and will have to start over another day. I’ll probably head to bed around 11.
A normal weekend day would be all of the above minus the brunch and bbq party. I usually don’t see a lot of people on the weekends and enjoy my own company a lot.
posted by cecic at 6:40 PM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I’m not super functional, so I’m not sure this is a good guide, but.
If it seems like I don’t have much time to myself, you’re very perceptive. If it seems like I don’t eat very healthily or exercise, well observed! All of those things are true. I have no idea how to change this, because of the sheer amount of time I spent working and doing things that will allow me to work.
My days off are rudderless and subject to whims and needs. I prefer not to go out on my second day off (I usually have two consecutive days off, though not actual weekends) but sometimes go out and do something fun on the first. I frequently drink on the first day off as well, but not the second. Given the schedule above being in effect most of the time, I tend to just by myself and do whatever I want as much as possible on those days. Usually I am not productive because I don’t have the mental energy and space to do so. By the time I’ve finally unwound, it’s basically back to work again.
I miss when I used to have hobbies.
Hoping to ease off the schedule in a few months and maybe things will improve. (I’ve also given up on losing weight until then, because I just cannot handle being starving and miserable on top of all of THAT.)
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 6:51 PM on September 4, 2016 [3 favorites]
7-8 am wake up, maybe hang out in bed and listen to music while my husband wakes up and gets baby oriented/bottle feeds. Or I just get up and grab baby, breastfeed, get dressed with her, toddle around, read, play, etc.
8 am eat breakfast, hang out with husband and kid, drink coffee. Dad leaves for work, me and babe keep hanging out. This includes: going for walks, go do errands, go visit with grandparents, go to play group, watch a little TV, meet up with a friend, try to not go crazy, parks, cafes, botanical gardens. It’s pretty fun but also tiring.
12 ish- baby naps and I either do some chores, catch up on emails, text with people, check in with husband about work (I help with business), take a nap as well, shower, whatever I have time for in 1-2 hours.
5 ish husband gets home. We all hang out some more, go for walk or someone walks the dog or we cook, or just feed baby something and try to figure out what we are doing for dinner after she goes to sleep. We play a lot with our kid.
7 pm baby goes to bed, we hang out watch TV, clean up, eat. Maybe 1-2 times a week I’ll go do something with a friend alone in the evening, or just have some personal time.
9-11 pm Do something else before bed (more texting, reading, TV, surfing internet) or hang out with husband listening to Podcasts, or just peace out doing whatever.
Weekends we do this, but as a family, pretty much. Sometimes I spend more time alone or with my own friends on the weekend, or we do family friendly things with other people.
Having a toddler is a big, hard adventure, but I love not just working in an office every day, and going to new places and it’s actually really fun.
posted by Rocket26 at 7:00 PM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Can I. not have a schedule?
Instead, I have a list of priorities that work toward long term goals. Each priority needs to get kicked down the road a little bit every day, every week, or every month depending on how often it needs «touched».
If it’s not a work day, I work on the not-work priorities. Those include long term things like «raise functional human being,» «make house and garden a place in which I want to live,» and «earn doctoral degree.» Functional human needs to get kicked down the road daily (er. ), house and garden and doctoral degree need to get kicked down the road weekly.
But if I prioritize my goals, reasonably, and make progress, then I am happy. That matters more to me than looking at a clock. My advice to you would be to prioritize, work toward the goals, and give yourself permission to be human.
posted by arabelladragon at 7:00 PM on September 4, 2016 [16 favorites]
Best answer: I work retail, so my schedule shifts around a lot. When I work mornings I get up at least 2 hours before I have to be at work, because I need that time to
— make & eat breakfast including vitamins
— feed 3 dogs & 1 cat
— read the Guardian & Twitter on the iPad
— make & drink coffee (French press)
— smoke a cigarette
— go to the bathroom
— make my bed
— put out my clothes for the day
— make my lunch
— shower
When I work the closing shift I get up around 8, do most of the above and then try to spend at least an hour doing something productive like the laundromat, the grocery store, some social media for the community darkroom I volunteer for or maybe even some artwork. Or sometimes I give up and just play Minecraft. I try to stay off my feet if possible.
After work I either run errands or just go home, have a glass of wine and decompress. Twice a week, I go out with friends for drinks. I’m pretty much useless for anything productive after work: I’m tired and I need solitude. I manage to feed the dogs and make dinner, most nights, but other than that it’s metafilter, Twitter, instagram, Minecraft, dumb bubble popping game on iPad.
5:45 alarm goes off. Mostly lately I poke around on my phone and stretch until 6:15 but in the past I would get up and go for a bike ride or a run. I throw a load of laundry in.
6:15 get the kids breakfast, make coffee, shower, make lunches for one child + my husband and I, get dressed, get the kids dressed and sunscreened and shod.
7:20 out the door, drop the little guy off at daycare (my elder son walks himself to school)
I get to work around 8:40 since I have dropoff + commute. I read my phone and sometimes post or write email on the subway.
At work I occasionally pop onto this site or a few others, and I sometimes read on my phone at lunchtime or while in line at the coffee shop.
— on Tuesdays and Thursdays I leave work at 4:45 as I’m on pickup. On M-W-F I often work to 6:15 and occasionally I stay for an evening event.
— on pickup days I make dinner and do homework and bedtimes, or a chore
— on other days I try to make it for bedtimes, which are at 7:30 and 8:30 respectively. I flip laundry. Since part of bedtime can be sitting there in the room staying awake, I’m often on my phone at these times
— I do dishes or sometimes chat with my MIL, who lives with us. M-Tue-W I go to martial arts at 9:15. or not if I’m tired, I usually make it at least twice
— after 10:15 I will pop online
— on Fridays I try to leave a bit earlier and grocery shop on the way home. Friday nights I sometimes meet my friends for a wine night.
Saturdays our whole family is basically at martial arts all morning, but sometimes I run errands in there. I grocery shop after martial arts, then do a drive to an arts class. The rest of Saturday is chores. Sunday is often more chores, swim class, and I try to do something aerobic, either a ride or a ride, and. fun. We try to get together with our friends once a month.
I don’t know if that’s helpful. I’m about to try tracking my time so can report back more minutely at some point.
Last week was unusual because I had a friend whose husband died so I stopped at her house most nights and my MIL and husband did all the kid wrangling. The kids were also home with my MIL that week so no dropoff/pickup which was kind of heavenly.
posted by warriorqueen at 7:09 PM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
This is such a good question and an interesting exercise. I kind of love these questions that seem so mundane, and yet about things we don’t know about other people. Let’s see if I can add to it.
Weekdays:
6:45 Wake up, angry.
6:45-7:15 Get dressed, general hygiene (generally no shower, as see below), tie a tie about seven times before the length is close enough to correct.
7:15 Walk to the train, get on, listen to a podcast and play some kind of puzzle game on iPhone.
7:45 Arrive at work, pull out laptop, get coffee
7:45-12 Do the work, eat breakfast at desk
10, work is mostly editing and coordinating project teams. Also a significant number of ADD internet breaks (my browser starts up with about 22 tabs open)
12-12:45 Go to gym or run outside
12:45-1 Shower, get back to office, sweating profusely
1-5 Work again, eating desk lunch
2
5 Head back on train same way I came
5:30 Stop at grocery store to pick up dinner items
6-
9 Start cooking some kind of dinner
7-11 Any variety of things: Since it’s summer, mostly just watch the local baseball game. Other seasons, TV, read with music, take a walk, meet a friend for a drink, practice guitar, clean house, garden, etc.
11-12:30 Watch the Daily Show, Nightly Show (RIP), @midnight
11-12:30 (when those shows are not on) Read in bed.
12:30 Lay down, throw on a documentary on Netflix/Hulu, try falling asleep
2 Usually asleep.
(yeah, not the best sleep hygiene.)
Weekends:
11 Wake up (see poor sleep hygiene previously), if a sad day, read in bed until early afternoon
12 Make breakfast, watch TV
2 Maybe a run? Reading? Maybe a store visit? Maybe a walk to get coffee? Gardening?
6 Plans with friends, usually
2 Sleep again
posted by General Malaise at 7:11 PM on September 4, 2016 [3 favorites]
All weekdays except Monday:
If it’s a Monday, all of the above until leaving work but instead of going home I catch the train to one of the local universities where I have a night class I’m taking from 5:30-7:30, then meet with a group for a review session from 7:39-9:30, then head home. I usually pack an extra sandwich in my bag or grab something portable for dinner. Once home I usually go straight for pajamas and read in bed with my iPad.
If it’s a weekend, all bets are off. I’m usually up in the mornings by 7:30, in bed by 11, and the weekend usually consists of cleaning the house, a daily workout, one dinner out with my husband of friends or both, and usually one planned activity (like running a local road race or hitting a museum). Other than that I prefer to not schedule things to just do fuckall. I like looking at my weekends as one big chunk rather than by day and say, «ok. I’m going to workout each day, clean the house and do one thing» (like see a movie or take the dogs on a hike or something). It feels like I’m able to better give myself permission to just chillax the remainder of the time, and I can hit those weekend «to do goals» whenever and in whatever order.
posted by floweredfish at 7:33 PM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
I’ve loved reading all of these. Here’s my typical weekday:
On weekends, I get up at 6 and work until the kids wake up, then work again through my youngest son’s nap. We run errands usually as a family (grocery store or whatever) and do a little cleaning and laundry, then spend Sunday afternoons at my in-laws’ house with all of the cousins (five kids under 4!).
I’ve had more and less productive times in my life, and I often feel like unless I’m doing it «right» it’s not worth doing. This has led, for example, to me creating a 3-ring binder of perfectly planned household chore schedules, rather than actually doing any of those chores. Right now I hate that I am working so much before and after work and on the weekends instead of using that «free» time for working out or reading, but there just isn’t the time at work to do any of the actual work that comes out of the meetings (my normal goofing-off online during the day has also fallen off by about 98%). I can tell that this is a temporary thing so I’m just trying to get through it. As a result, the house doesn’t get cleaned nearly as often as it «should» so I’m just trying to do one thing each weekend and call it good enough. This weekend both toilets got scrubbed and the bathtub got a half-hearted going over; it’s a three-day weekend and that’s going to have to be good enough. Next weekend I’ll focus on the floors and maybe the weekend after that we’ll do something about the dust and cobwebs. I pick whatever’s bothering me most.
I’m a homeschooling, not-otherwise-working mom. I have more of a routine than a schedule. I get up when one of the kids wakes up. I putter around, getting food for him and me, doing some tidying. I eat a leisurely breakfast, generally reading Facebook/Metafilter/blogs until I get to my coffee, and then I look over my to do list and add to it.
In the afternoons, the kids have some Minecraft or TV time, and I sew or play Minecraft with them. There’s assorted internet time in there. Sometimes I exercise. Chores are scattered around throughout the day; if we’re having a stay-at-home day, it’s generally because I need to do laundry. Around 3, we reconvene and do some school-ish stuff for a while, or they play and I read. Sometimes we go back out at this point, like to the park or just the backyard. Around 5, I start dinner. My spouse is home between 6 and 6:30, and we all have dinner together.
So I feel a lot like you in that I feel like I just don’t have *time* to accomplish everything other people do, but when I really think about it I actually just waste a lot of my time doing mindless stuff on my devices, so I’m working to change that. Right now though, this is my schedule:
^That’s all an average work + gym day for me. I go to the gym 4-5 days per week and try to have 2 of those days be on weekends when I have more time, so I have 2-3 non-gym days per week to have dinner with friends, go on a date night, see a movie, hang out with my mom, etc.
My goal is to eliminate at least 1 of those screwing around on the internet portions of my day so I leave more time to be productive, work on my skills, apply for new jobs, connect with my friends more, etc.
posted by jouir at 9:05 PM on September 4, 2016
I have a pretty flexible schedule because I work in academia. I usually let myself either have mornings or evenings to dick around. On days where I have to work both mornings and evenings, I usually let myself have a more relaxed day the day before or after to make up for it. So today is a pretty chill day because tomorrow I have an early morning meeting and have to teach in the evening, so I won’t get much down time at all.
So today I slept until 10:30am. Then I spent the next hour drinking coffee, showering, reading metafilter.
I had a paper nearly ready to submit to a journal, so I dove into that to do some final editing and formatting, and time passed quickly and then it was 1:30pm. I sent my paper to my co-author for his approval before I submit, and then checked my work email and replied to a bunch of urgent things (student inquiries, mostly). Then it was 2:45 and I was starving. So now I am eating lunch and surfing the internet.
My other goal for today is to mark around 20 student essays. They take 20 minutes each so it is clearly not going to happen at this point. Which is a problem, because I have to mark 70-ish by Friday. I will probably manage to do a few over the next few hours, while listening to music, sitting in my garden. I will need to take lots of coffee breaks. Maybe alcohol breaks as time goes on.
As far as my workdays go, this is a very productive day (if I can, indeed, mark some of those essays). I get days like this maybe once a week.
A day at the other end of the spectrum (which I also have about once a week) is like my day last Monday which went as follows:
6:50am get up, fastest shower and dress ever
7:10am out the door to the bus stop, to head to a meeting with my programmer in the city, where I have to deliver him some IT equipment for our project.
8:30am arrive in the city (by bus and train), head to a university there (not mine) to pick up something from a colleague
9:00am pick up item from colleague, head across town to programmer’s house.
9:40am quick meeting with programmer to see if he’s on track, drop off equipment.
10:10am while travelling back to university (a different campus from my usual one, requiring bus, train, bus), participate in conference call about a new teaching program we are developing.
11:45am arrive at university, find the room for a work/lunch meeting about a conference we are running in December.
12-1 lunch/meeting
1-2 dick around on the internet while avoiding answering emails.
2-3:30 attend a seminar by a visiting scholar. Answer emails quietly at the back and hope no one notices.
3:30 should actually do something productive now, but I have another 1 hr 30 commute home, so I leave. Plan to be productive while on the train.
5pm arrive home. Was not productive on the train because it was standing room only. Despite the fact I spent the whole last 1 hr 30 playing stupid games on my phone, play more stupid games on my phone to recover from the commute.
6pm should really do something productive now, but eat an early dinner instead.
6:30-8:30 whoops I had a nap.
8:30-11pm playing D&D
11pm go to bed. Lie awake for a couple of hours worrying about how little I got done today and playing phone games or surfing metafilter in the dark.
posted by lollusc at 10:08 PM on September 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
I’m trying to break out of a rough period too. My mood’s been kind of crappy and I tend to either work or get into an internet rabbit hole.
I set my own schedule (also in academia). The only thing that’s pretty consistent is my mornings during the work week and they go like so:
6:30am- wake up, look at news/emails/social media in bed for 15 minutes
6:45am- get out of bed, put oatmeal in pot on stove, get showered/dressed and put makeup on while listening to Morning Edition
7:30am- eat while browsing internet
7:45am- take dog out, brush teeth, probably still browsing internet
8:00am- walk to the office
8:15am- get to office, plan out tasks for the day
8:30am- start working, crossing off tasks as I go. I get pretty fixated on my work so this is usually fairly continuous writing or data analysis. I’m usually texting with friends on and off through this and I’ll occasionally check a website or chat with my office mate, but for the most part I’m focused.
sometime between 11 and 2- eat lunch while still working and then walk home
The rest of my time is pretty unstructured. I try to do the following:
WORK
-Do enough work from home over the course of the week to equal a full workweek, when added to my time in the office
-Set specific work goals for the week every Monday morning that I can accomplish by Sunday night
-Write for at least 12 hours a week- I can count hours towards past weeks (which is helpful because sometimes stuff comes up and I need the flexibility), but not future weeks (which keeps me from overworking or seeing breaks from writing as a reward). This has made a regular habit, which in turn has made it easier to do when I sit down to do it. I’ve been doing it for the past 4 years or so with varying success in meeting that goal every week, but regardless, it’s been immensely helpful.
RESPONSIBILITIES
-Clean for 15 minutes every time I get home from work rather than just sitting down on the couch (this has been huge for me- nothing makes a shitty mood worse like seeing my apartment fall to pieces, which is the first thing to happen when I’m not feeling great, and doing just a little bit every day has kept it super neat)
-Cook something that I can freeze into at least a week’s worth of lunches about once a week so I don’t have to cook daily
-Go to sleep by 11
BALANCE/FUN
-Go for a >5 mile hike with some significant elevation once a week
-Go somewhere I’ve never been before once a week
-Do something that’s not just going down an internet hole every day- read a book chapter, paint, practice guitar, walk my dog, call a family member, make someone something to mail to them. This is the hardest one for me to stick to. If I don’t force myself to do this, I’ll literally spend 5+ hours in the evening staring at my phone.
-Take relaxation-focused baths or do something else nice for myself on tough days.
posted by quiet coyote at 10:17 PM on September 4, 2016 [4 favorites]
But over the past 3 or 4 months everything started to come together. I’ve also realized that I’ve just never been very good at «doing things». The first thing I did was morning and bedtime routines. Then I discovered Google Calendar Goals.
Journal writing and mindfulness keeps me feeling positive and grounded.
posted by Locochona at 2:59 AM on September 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
I’m sure this will be unhelpful, but anyway. This was a weekday last week:
2-3am: settle (autistic) tantrumming 3.5yo by breastfeeding him (not every night but about 4-5/7, and not always this time but generally between 1 and 4am) in our bed. He shares with his sister and he can’t be in there screaming as she has school in the morning. Minor upset takes 20mins to get him back to sleep, severe distress can take 90. He then fusses every 40-60minutes but goes back to sleep almost at once.
5.15am: (also autistic) 10yo gets up and comes in talking in a loud daytime voice, and has to be told to go back to her bed and read if she can’t sleep (she is getting better at remembering not to wake us but still needs reminding several times a week).
6.45am: alarm goes off, husband gets in shower, I hit snooze.
7.15am: get up, dress, pee, take thyroxine, let dog out and feed him, wake 6yo, tell 10yo she can come out of her room, leave 3yo sleeping in my bed. Husband has made me coffee and does kids’ breakfast. I potter about getting school uniforms ready, fixing snacks for them and refilling their water bottles etc.
7.45am: bring sleepy, snuggly 3yo down for breakfast.
8am: tell girls to get dressed, give 10yo her medication (adhd), assist with tricky buttons/tights etc. Oversee/assist tooth brushing, brush and style their hair (mine is scraped into a bun when I wake up).
8.20am: change 3yo’s nappy, dress him, put harness and lead on dog, put carrier on my back and put 3yo in it. Get everyone else into their jackets, bags on. Make sure 10yo has her hearing aids on.
8.30am: leave for school, a 1.1mile walk away, carrying 3yo on my back. En route pick up dog’s mess.
9am: send girls into school, wave bye, then walk home via railway line so 3yo can look at trains. 3yo often walks last quarter mile home.
9.40am: arrive home, microwave and drink coffee my husband made me, eat some breakfast, clear up morning dishes/mess.
10am-12pm: laundry and household tasks, usually while fielding phonecalls from speech therapy or emails regarding specialist therapy equipment. Several breaks to work on dog’s obedience training (he’s 5months old). Change 3yo’s nappy as necessary. Fart about on the internet if I can.
12pm: make lunch and eat with 3yo at the table. He is nearly non-verbal so we work on his language at every opportunity.
12.40pm: get 3yo changed into nursery polo shirt and tell him it’s nearly time for nursery. Hug him as he generally cries at the news of any transition.
12.50pm: leave to walk half a mile to nursery, drop 3yo off, talk briefly to staff about his mood/toiletting/appetite that day. Then walk home again.
1.10-2.30pm: more household stuff, especially things like washing floors that can’t easily be done with 3yo around (although dog makes it pretty annoying too!), often start preparing veg etc. for dinner. Sometimes a friend visits.
2.35pm: leave to go get girls from school. Get them at 3pm, take them to the park and then pick 3yo up at 3.50pm, then bring them all home.
4.10pm-5pm: help them with homework.
5-6.30pm: cook dinner, clear table (of homework etc.) have child set table. Feed dog. Phone husband and tell him to hurry up and leave work or chat to him as he’s on his way home.
6.30-7: sit down to eat dinner together.
7pm: husband clears table and makes me a cup of tea and I debrief my day. Kids play in the garden or watch tv.
7.45pm: run bath for 3 and 6 yo’s. Bath them, washing hair as needed (3yo thoroughly dislikes bath time so he screams and thrashed throughout), brush their teeth, get them out and into jammies. Sometimes my husband does a that while I lie around, depending on how full kn our respective days have been. Put shower on for 10yo and tell her to get in it. Lie down with 3yo and breastfeed him to sleep. Either me or hubby will read to 6yo.
8.40pm: youngest two are usually asleep and eldest is in her room reading. I sit downstairs and watch tv while checking all their appointments are in the calendar (in Google) and responding to emails from school etc. Listen to my husband decompressing from his day at work (immensely stressful job). Cuddle on the sofa for a while.
Sometimes I fall asleep next to the 3yo at 8pm and my husband wakes me at midnight to come to bed.
11pm-12am-ish: head to bed
11-1am: re-settle the 3yo in his own bed (as he fusses but isn’t loudly distressed). Creep/stagger back to my own bed afterwards.
I actually wonder how I am alive on the sleep I get but it mostly seems to work okay. If I get 4 consecutive hours in a solid block I’m golden, if not I know I’ll be crashing in the boy’s bed the following night.
I do know this reads like a ridiculous exaggeration but it is in fact accurate, and sadly among the families I know dealing with autism and small children it’s not particularly exceptional. I feel for you OP, I am rubbish at routine and self-care. All this is externally enforced by the kids’ needs. If it were left to me I’d unravel in a week.
posted by intergalacticvelvet at 3:13 AM on September 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
Typical weekday:
Typical weekend:
My routine has just changed up, on the job hunt and a new place, but for the last 18 months my life looked something like this:
Non-work day would look about the same, but with a dog walk thrown in for an hour or so in the afternoon. Way too much time spent online.
Going forward as a postgraduate student in part time work, I’d like to have a limit on the amount of time spent on the internet. I’m a person who feels terrible without a lot of down time and alone time, so I don’t beat myself up for not being mega productive, but the internet is just such a massive sink hole and doesn’t make me feel any better. I’d like me-time to involve some exercise or gentle activity like baking, rather than just mindless gawking at the internet to kill the hours.
NB before being medicated for depression and when I was in a bad place, my day would look almost identical, except permeated with self-loathing and self-criticism. In some ways I was more productive because I was so harsh on myself about being «good».
posted by mymbleth at 4:54 AM on September 5, 2016
Yesterday was a Sunday in the middle of a 3-day weekend (we have Monday off). It was a very lazy day. No kids, no dogs, just cats and adults.
This schedule is pretty similar to when I’m depressed, but it feels very different when I’m not depressed. Sleeping in feels like a luxury, not a place where I’m stuck and dreading anything else.
I like using Habitica for tasks because it gives you points and treats for getting things done. I have really easy general tasks there, and only a few. «Water the plants on Sunday.» «Make the house happy.» «Do a nice thing for/with your partner.» This kind of flexible goal makes it more likely that I will succeed and not give up.
posted by sadmadglad at 5:09 AM on September 5, 2016
I just checked back in here to read all the responses again wanted to thank you for posting this question.
I went through a pretty crippling period of depression about a year ago where it caused me to lose my sense of time and routine. Now that things feel righted more or less, it’s really refreshing to see how all of us manage through our daily regimens of work, home care, relationship care and such.
posted by floweredfish at 6:07 AM on September 5, 2016 [5 favorites]
I’m fascinated by this topic, how people spend their day. A few years ago, I kept track of each day for a week or two to see what I did. It’s an interesting, enlightening exercise for most of us.
I don’t work. My day might be:
Wake at 6, when spouse wakes. Go back to sleep (or rarely, get up)
Wake at 7, when spouse leaves. Check email and facebook, feed virtual Neko Atsume cats, then go back to sleep (or sometimes, get up).
Get up at 8, or even 9. Shower, dress, make tea, eat berries or grits or leftovers.
From 9 until 11 or so, work at desk on computer, checking and writing email, updating and checking Facebook, Feedly (which includes AskMeFi feed), update things (blogs, group emails, flickr, etc.), check weather, etc. Feed virtual Neko Atsume cats.
11-5:30 Totally varies. Usually includes:
1-2 hours working out
1-2 hours walking or hiking (or snowshoeing) and photographing.
Sometimes 1-2 hours gardening or photographing in garden.
Sometimes 1/2 hour to hour reading.
Sometimes 1/2 hour to hour cleaning something (vacuuming, sweeping, bathroom cleaning, tidying) or handling laundry.
Sometimes have lunch, sometimes not, but at least a snack at some point.
One day of the week, meet with group of friends from 10-12. Another day, meet with group of friends from 3-5.
Several monthly afternoon meetings.
Sometimes I’m taking a class, like now, that meets from 9:30-12:30 one day per week.
Check email and FB throughout the day, briefly.
Grocery shop every second or third day.
15 mins to an hour prepping dinner.
5:30 feed Neko Atsume cats. Spouse home, more dinner work,
6-7 Eat dinner and watch a DVR’d HGTV show from 6-6:30. Or once or twice a week, dinner or party at friends’ houses. Often a 1/2-hour walk with spouse after dinner.
7-9 clean, read, computer work (blogging, mostly), emails, sometimes talk with sister on phone, work on financial stuff, etc.
9-11 ready for bed, feed Neko Atsume cats, in bed reading etc.
11-6 sleep.
My days are pretty much what I want them to be at this point. I like being outside in the woods, being with friends and feeling part of a community, reading, gardening, taking photos, working out, and learning new things, so that’s mostly what I do. I’d like to incorporate more creativity into my day.
posted by mmw at 8:46 AM on September 5, 2016
I have a full-time job, a child in elementary school and a husband. I am a woman. I telecommute.
regular day (in the school year).
5.15am alarm goes off, get out of bed, running clothes on
5:30am running
6:30am home, into shower, brush teeth, dress
7am wake up kid, get her breakfasted into her uniform, hustle through the tooth brushing etc. Sometime in there my husband wakes up and gets ready.
7:45 leave for school. we walk.
8:15 I’m back. Chat to husband before he leaves for work
8:30 sitting down to computer. Check email, facebook, mefi. Make a list of what I want to do that day.
9-12 work. I have a job that’s lot of little things to do over and over again. I work 20minutes and take 10 minute breaks (I set a timer). on those 10 minutes, I get up and do something in the apartment, like put things away, take out recycling, change a load of laundry etc. It breaks up my day and I’m more efficient in both work and home stuff if I do this.
12-1 lunch. Usually I go outside with my phone and sit on our roof and eat and look at the internet or watch netflix
1-3 work
3-5 either still working, or pick up kid depending on whether she’s doing after school programs or not
5ish. Cook dinner. Sometimes I eat it with the kid, sometimes with the husband depending on whether he is getting home late or really late. We never eat all together
6:30ish do something with the kid, lately it’s been going out to catch pokemon
7:30 kid into shower, and bed at 8. I putz around. Husband usually comes home between 7 and 8:30. If he’s home earlier he will go to the gym.
9pm Husband cleans up, I work for an hour or so
10pm. Usually watch a show on tv, talk to husband, relax
11:30ish bedtime
posted by gaspode at 9:28 AM on September 5, 2016
This is not a typical week at all. I’m currently working on a semi-annual clean/clear-up and donate. This is partially for anxiety reasons, partially because it’s nice to clean up sometimes.
10:30 bed.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 10:50 AM on September 5, 2016
May I just begin by saying, as a person who has been considering asking a question very similar to the one posted above, my mind is boggled by how many of you have schedules specific and repetitive enough to rattle off so easily, complete with to-the-minute timelines. I’m totally impressed.
In the interest of social studies, (and maybe getting a few laughs) here’s mine:
My job is 11:30 AM to 7:30 PM. My day starts with me waking up as late as humanly possible. This varies wildly from day to day, depending on circumstances (do I need a shower? Do I need to pack lunch? Do I really need to eat/drink/provide basic nourishment for myself today? So, sometimes I’m up at 9AM ish, and sometimes 11AM ish.
Once I get up, my morning is a panicked blur of scrambling to get out the door. It goes something like this: put in contacts, use bathroom, panic. Take shower, dry off, attempt to find clothes, panic. Scarf down Cheerios with granola and almond milk, gulp a few vitamin pills, panic. Throw water bottles into my purse, toss in an apple sauce cup (religiously forgetting the spoon,) panic. Argue with myself that there’s no time to apply makeup. Apply makeup anyway. (Just mascara.) Some days, literally run to my car, look at the display to see what time it is, panic.
My drive is about fifteen minutes of positive self talk and breathing techniques combined with counteracting lectures and empty promises that tomorrow I WILL be on time SO HELP ME.
Rush into work 8 minutes late and try to pretend to be cool and collected.
Desk/computer job for 7 hours, with occasional forays into putting out fires, damage control, and/or talk therapy services for troubled coworkers. (Ironic, I know.)
Drive home, collapse on couch, cuddle with adorable hubby, eat (share family size TV dinner with hubby, eat fast food, and on especially successful occasions, eat a healthy Crock-Pot dinner that I started before I left for work in the morning.)
Stay up waaaaay too late Pinteresting/reading/cuddling with hubby (wink) and predictably breaking my earlier vows to get to bed on time tonight. Go to bed and set alarm clock for latest possible time to wake up tomorrow. Repeat.
So long story short no, I’m not that great at scheduling.
posted by quiet_musings at 10:52 AM on September 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
This was super interesting. Thanks for posting the question!
7:30am: alarm goes off
7:45am: second alarm goes off
8:00: fall out of bed and roll down stairs
8:00-8:30: make coffee and toast, check feedly/reddit updates on phone. Also chop up some things for lunch salad, and chuck into bag with some snacks.
8:30: accidentally waste half an hour on reddit before catching myself
9:00: bike in to work for about 15 minutes
9:30-10:00: group meeting with the rest of my research group; talk about what we’ve been working on and what’s next. Lots of little admin things.
10:00-10:30: impromptu meeting with supervisor and colleague to discuss a poster
rest of morning: fiddle with poster in Google Docs to get a general outline
12:30-13:30: another colleague asks if I want to join him for lunch, so walk down with him to one of the local lunch haunts. Salad will have to wait for tomorrow.
rest of afternoon: stare dejectedly at unfinished poster. Decide reddit is much more interesting. Do pressups in the office to try to boost enthusiasm. Fix some typos in another paper we’re working on.
17:30: is that the time?! Pack up and head home.
18:00: ransack kitchen for leftovers and have an early dinner of Spanish omelette, banana loaf and, for some inexplicable reason, granola. Divert to Metafilter.
19:30: off to the local sports centre for Monday evening fencing training.
22:30: back home, and quick shower before starting the dishwasher and heading to bed.
posted by katrielalex at 11:20 AM on September 5, 2016
I am married, work full-time and have no kids. I am recording this here for posterity so that I can look back and laugh at my copious amounts of free time if I have a kid.
Weekends are extremely varied. We generally sleep in (until around 9 am) unless we have some reason to be up. Saturday mornings are usually the time we knock out chores, usually by walking around the neighborhood and stopping into various shops. This could include the bank, post office, returning and getting books from the library, a bit of local grocery shopping, buying bread, grabbing coffee somewhere etc. Then we return to eat lunch unless we decide to get brunch somewhere (which is fairly rare). Evenings might include a bike ride, or a trip to a museum, or a play or other show with friends, or a birthday party, kayaking or sailing. It really depends. Sundays are usually more of the same, though we may each put in a bit of work or studying in preparation for the coming week.
posted by peacheater at 12:42 PM on September 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Tangentially related to your reason for asking, but not actually answering your request.
I worked at Google for five years, as an engineer.
In my initial training, there was a talk on impostor syndrome; basically, falling into the belief that everyone’s better than you, and that you were going to be found out, and fired. «I must be the only one who screws up like this», «everyone else seems perfect», and so on.
It was in the training because maybe half of the people working there hit that trap, eventually. And most of us keep hitting it, month after month, year after year. And telling us it was there presumably kept a lot of folks from quitting, or at least kept some of us from artificially limiting ourselves.
Everyone screws up. All the time. If you’re not screwing up, you’re not doing anything that challenges you. And only picking things to avoid challenge is a slow-motion trip into a bad place, I think.
I say this as someone who often plays video games on the easy setting; occasionally pick some stupidly easy things. Just don’t make a lifelong habit of it. 🙂
posted by talldean at 2:05 PM on September 5, 2016 [13 favorites]
I usually get up between 6:30 and 6:45. Sometimes earlier if I want to bank some time for the week by going into the office earlier.
Weekends vary, based on if I have a class or something I am taking/teaching, if so, I will take usually one of the mornings and sometimes one of the afternoons to do some work. We’ll do something athletic (skating, tennis) on at least one day. Usually go out to dinner at least one night.
posted by chiefthe at 2:55 PM on September 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Wow, I get up really early. My work-day schedule, school-year edition:
4:43 am- Wake up, change into gym clothes, noodle around on internet for a few minutes
5:00-5:30 am- Gym (aka read fanfic on my kindle while on the elliptical or bike)
5:30-5:50 am- Go back home, eat breakfast while reading Metafilter
5:50-6:15 am- Shower, get dressed, deal with hair
6:15-7:05 am- Make breakfast for son, drink coffee, get our lunches packed, make sure son’s backpack is ready for day, put sunscreen on self & son, hassle son about brushing his teeth and putting on shoes, brush my teeth, make sure I am all packed for the day
7:50-7:45 am- Walk to train, train ride, arrive in Boston, walk to work, try to fool self into thinking I’ll start saving money and avoiding Dunks/Starbucks, fail at that and buy coffee
8:15/8:30 am-12:00 pm- Work
12:00-12:30 pm- Lunch break- walk around outside for 15 minutes, eat lunch at desk
12:30-4:00 pm- Work
4:00-4:50 pm- Walk to train station, train ride, get off train, walk to son’s afterschool program, pick up son
5:00-5:30 pm- Walk home with son. Sometimes we stop at a park or store on the way, weather-dependent
5:30-6:45 pm- Cook & eat dinner
6:45-7:15/7:30 pm- Son’s bedtime routine & get him into bed
7:30-8:00/8:30/9:00 pm- Wash dishes, get some part of lunches ready for next day, get coffee pot ready for auto brew, sometimes I have to do some meal prep for next day. Sundays I lay out 5 outfits for the week for son so he can get dressed on his own
8:00/8:30/9:00-9:30/10:00 pm- Mess around aimlessly on internet, attempt to write fanfiction, maybe watch tv, generally waste time
9:30/10:00 pm- Get ready for bed, read on kindle in bed until eyes start closing, hope I don’t wake up at 2 am for an unnecessary hour of lying awake worrying about a million things.
I don’t have much free time.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 3:12 PM on September 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I’ve been checking this thread often and I’m surprised and thankful for all the comments I’ve gotten. Reading through all this has helped me accept that the time has come to start working on myself. It’s really refreshing to see all these schedules. I feel like I’ve just received the objectives in a video game, rather than advice on how to play it. Not that I don’t appreciate your advice, but knowing that there are cuddle-hungry, leisurely productive, social-media-checking playstyles to a day helped me reflect on myself a lot.
It’s less, «I’ve fallen and I can’t get up». More, «Well, I’ve fallen. I better catch up with everyone.»
I’m not comfortable with scheduling out my day yesterday, but I will say, that as a small victory, I slept a couple hours earlier than I usually do and was able to wake up and get out of bed much earlier as well.
posted by weewooweewoo at 3:21 PM on September 5, 2016 [7 favorites]
I have not had time to read all of the above, but here’s the rundown on how I spent labor day at work (of my own free will):
9:30ish woke up
10-11:20 read news and a chapter of a book
11:30 made cup of tea, commuted to the porch
11:45-1pm fixed two bug reports and started a full laptop backup
1-1:10 pm realized I had forgotten lunch and was starving and ate a leftover baked potato
1:10-4:30 pm several more bug reports and maybe 40 requests downed. Worked entirely straight through with no distractions or interruptions
4:30-5 summarized my day’s work
5-6 starving again and decided to go out for a pizza and then swimming, unfortunately my favorite swimming spot was unavailable so I bailed on that. Annoyed at partially wasted hour and lack of good decompression.
6-7 tried to unwind, I think it was more news reading
7-7:30 dealt with one followup from the day’s work
7:30-8 out enjoying a gorgeous sunset and typing this
rest of day: plan is to read a book until mindnight or so
posted by joeyh at 5:06 PM on September 5, 2016
I am self-employed, and my schedule is often dictated by whatever project I am working on, so time at the computer at home and going into the city for appointments etc. On days when I am free, I keep it organized around things that need accomplished on a daily basis but don’t peg all of them to an exact time.
This is an example of a free day at home:
awake by 10am, briefly check correspondences, make and drink coffee, read books, not e-books, for an hour or more
11:30-2 project-specific work/1st daily practice regimen (I am a professional classical musician who writes and performs)
2-3 brunch, correspondence, reading things online, various taking care of business
3-6 depending on what happened before brunch, either project-specific work as needed/1st daily practice regimen. If no project and my 1st session is finished, I spend this time writing and working on personal long-term projects, sometimes running errands, sometimes I fall down a few YouTube rabbit holes if I am not disciplined enough
6-10 dinner, time spent with spouse, spouse goes to sleep between 9-10 each night
10p-2a 2nd daily practice regimen (with a special sound dampening device so I don’t wake my spouse), watching videos online, studying music, writing music, journaling, planning next day’s activities
2am in bed, usually takes me 30mins-1hr to fall asleep, I do meditation in that time as well
This all gets moved around on days where I commute (
1.5hrs) and sometimes I do rehearsals all day and have nothing left in the evening except to veg out. I usually do podcasts/books on tape while commuting, sometimes I bring the laptop to continue project work on the train if I am running behind on a deadline.
I have some down time coming up with no gigs or projects, so I am going to take the opportunity to shift my waking hours earlier and to get some more structured exercise into the mix.
posted by eusebis_w_adorno at 8:13 PM on September 5, 2016
I have a lot of part time jobs and they’re nearly all work-at-home so I have a pretty open schedule for the most part but some parts are tightly locked down into a routine and some are not. Usually there are chunks of time I do things in.
There’s a lot of interdependent stuff. If I exercise there is more food involved. If I have people coming there’s more house-readiness stuff. If I’m in a bad mood I goof off online more. If I have a lot of energy I’ll do more «hard» tasks (the ones I don’t like). It’s really surprising to me how same-y a lot of my days are. I have other people in my life to sort of help me do different things.
posted by jessamyn at 8:46 AM on September 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
I am also astounded at how exact and regular people’s days are (or possibly this question is self-selecting for people who have exact and regular schedules)
Weekdays:
7:00-9:30, depending on when I’m working: wake up (no alarm needed)
5 minutes later: try, fail not to trip on cats while stumbling to washroom
next 10 minutes: shower
next 20 minutes: wander the house cursing because one of: [phone, backpack, laptop, wallet, work badge, wireless headphones] is missing
next hour: listen to podcasts & browse internet metafilter politics thread on at least one bus and train to work
next 8.5 hours: work, usually at 2 different clinic sites or outreach locations. Eat lunch at Subway (six inch spicy Italian on italian herb & cheese, toasted, with pepperjack cheese, spinach, black olives and onions, sauce depends on mood).
next hour: listen to podcasts & browse internet metafilter politics thread on at least one bus and train on way home. Probably stop by Walgreens and/or Aldi to get a thing for eating or that we’re out of
next 2-3 hours: watch tv, read on the Internet, maybe read a book, talk to husband, eat dinner (maybe), play with kittens
Weekends:
do nothing
clean shit
go to mass
take naps
play with husband
play with cats
probably grocery shopping
Program:terminal | 5h36m00s | 62.92
joeyh, did you spend 63% of your day being dead? Be honest
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:58 AM on September 6, 2016
It’s really helped me get a bigger picture on where my time is spent and how much of it I think of as useful.
posted by rebent at 11:54 AM on September 6, 2016
Howdy, just wanted to drop in and tell you about the time tracker I use, which is the Chronodex system I posted on the Blue about a while back.
Oh hey, I had a time tracker running so here’s what it has to say about the same day:
I might make a separate thread about this soon, but I am a productivity tech addict who really fails to follow through. I’ve been all over the place when it comes with my to-do lists, calendars, and what not- like, right now, I have a disabled version of Manic Time, a bullet journal that hasn’t been used in two weeks, a Chronodex that was used once, a pomodoro chrome extension that I don’t use, a url-redirect for my time waster websites (that I recently disabled), Google Calendar for events, Workflowy for my task lists, an Inbox where I keep requests, and a desktop sticky note thing that still has items from last week that I’ve already done.
Right now, I’m just trying to get to the basics of setting an hour of designated offline time in my day, I might be able to meditate my way through this problem on my own.
posted by weewooweewoo at 2:43 PM on September 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
Relevant data: married, young school-age kid, each grownup with a full time professional job. This is a typical weekday now that the school year has started. Summer was much less orderly because summer camp was all over the place, but frankly most of what was lost was parental free time.
6:10: alarm. I usually bribe myself with internet so I don’t go back to sleep. Stay cozy in bed with either until the kid wakes up, or until 6:45, which is when he needs to be up if he wants to catch the bus. If kid wakes up on his own (he usually does), have a family snuggle for a few minutes before moving on.
6:45ish-7:25: I’m usually The Morning Parent. Prepare child, animals, and myself for the day, in that order of priority. Everyone gets food, the cat box gets scooped, lunches get packed, people take fast showers and get dressed. Extras (making coffee for husband, goofing, doing chores) are rare but happen sometimes.
7:25-7:55: Schoolbus for kid, then I get the bus to work.
7:55-8:30: This is flexible time. Sometimes I take extra time at home and catch a later bus, sometimes I go to work early so I can head out early, sometimes I go for a walk (and play Ingress) near my work, which is an active area.
8:30-5: Work! Well, work, and goofing. Maybe 10 minutes an hour? Sometimes more. Depends on the day. I like Pomodoro when I have «sit at the computer» type of work, but if I’m in the lab I just check a time waster when I’m waiting for something to warm up/cool down/finish computing, and that happens 1-2 times per hour. I usually take an hour for lunch, mostly goofing at my desk, and sometimes with some work email mixed in. If I have a reason to walk to another building during the day I’ll often take an extra 10 minutes to do a more scenic route. Take bus home at 5.
5:25: Home! Husband is the After School Parent and is usually working on dinner while kid watches a show. I often take 10-15minutes to decompress—watch kid’s show, play a phone game, have a cuddle with the kid.
6ish: dinner. I make lunches and clean up after but am easily distracted.
7ish: Family time. Homework or helping kiddo with bathing or playing a game or being fresh out of cope and turning the TV back on.
8ish: Kiddo bedtime. Husband and I take turns. If I’m off-duty, I pet the cat and read or knit or look at my phone. If husband is off-duty, he pets the cat and watches Let’s Plays and folds laundry.
9ish: All grownups are off-duty, so more of the same. Chance for grownup conversations or just each doing our thing in the same part of the house. Sometimes one of us is working from home, but it’s usually the kind of thing that can be done with a laptop in front of the tv. There’s usually at least one chore that happens in this time. Laundry or kitchen cleaning or something. We head up to bed around the same time but husband lands with a thud and I putter around playing phone games until 10:30-11ish. Husband often wakes up and reads for an hour or two in the middle of the night.
Each of the grownups is out one evening per week on average. About one day per month we both go out and kiddo stays with Grandma.
posted by tchemgrrl at 9:56 AM on September 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
This is such an interesting question and replies, thanks for asking this. I am super interested in time use (not management, though they are linked) and I found myself nodding and laughing in recognition at so many of the responses (why am I not better at makeup yet? the ritual morning wander-around cursing over missing items, check!). A typical workday looks roughly like this:
Assume that a lot of those activities are fairly disjointed and contaminated with lots of phone use and social media that isn’t fulfilling but is so hard to curb. Weekends are better, these are usually completely unscheduled, we sleep in a tiny bit later, have a relaxing morning around the house with coffee, books, and TV, and generally wander out into the world for some sort of outing in the late morning or early afternoon, and kiddo’s bedtime is earlier and easier because she doesn’t nap on weekends.
Ugh, that was rather depressing, yet also enlightening. I’m inspired to try to make a few changes now.
posted by anderjen at 10:40 AM on September 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Wake up 4:30AM to 6AM depending on how bad the terminal insomnia is.
If early, either surf internet or every 3 days do dumb-bell workout while watching part of a movie
If not early, do 11 minute 5BX exercises
Shower, shave (takes about 10-15 minutes)
Sometime betwewen 5:45AM and 7AM toddler will wake up
If I’m not yet showered, park toddler in front of kids videos while I do that
Get toddler to sit on potty, cope with possible tantrum
Make toddler the breakfast he asks for (instant porridge, toast, mueli), cope with possible tantrum
Often, make him the second breakfast he’s changed his mind to, cope with possible tantrum
Make similar breakfast and cup of tea for wife
Get toddler dressed, cope with possible tantrum
Get toddler to brush his teeth, cope with possible tantrum
Put toddler in front of more videos while do washing up, put away coffee machine, get work stuff ready
7:35 get toddler away from videos, cope with inevitable tantrum, walk to nursery
8AM leave toddler at nursery, head for work
8:30AM arrrive at work
12 noon lunchbreak, usually eat pasty or sandwich on bench in park, about 25 minutes
5:30PM, leave work
If necessary go to supermarket on way home, takes about 30 minutes including extra walking
6PM to 6:30PM arrive home
Take toddler over from wife who brings him home. Struggle to entertain him while changing out of work clothes
Wife usually cooks while I entertain toddler, either playing with him or watching more videos. Sometimes I cook instead.
7PMish eat dinner, cope with probable toddler tantrum
7:30PM: wash up, take rubbish out, set up coffee machine
7:45PM to 8:30PM watch TV or play with toddler.
Get toddler changed into pajamas, cope with possible tantrum
Brush toddlers teeth and give him vitamins, cope with possible tantrum
8:30PM to 9PM: Put toddler to bed with milk and story, cope with possible tantrum.
9PM to 9:45PM Read if have any energy left, if exhausted go straight to next stage
9:45PM to 10PM: Brush teeth, floss, wash face, get undressed.
10PM bed.
Weekends: morning and evening identical to weekends. Instead of work do cleaning, chores and take toddler out to park/museum.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 9:18 AM on September 8, 2016
Reading it it sounds busy but my job is so flexible that it is generally very managable outside of grading crunch times.
posted by Cuke at 12:23 PM on September 10, 2016
How did you spend your day today
«What did you do today?»
«How did you spend your time today? Did you do anything interesting?»
«How did you spend your day today?»
Символ показывает уровень знания интересующего вас языка и вашу подготовку. Выбирая ваш уровень знания языка, вы говорите пользователям как им нужно писать, чтобы вы могли их понять.
Мне трудно понимать даже короткие ответы на данном языке.
Могу задавать простые вопросы и понимаю простые ответы.
Могу формулировать все виды общих вопросов. Понимаю ответы средней длины и сложности.
Понимаю ответы любой длины и сложности.
Решайте свои проблемы проще в приложении!
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Asked by: Shailesh on Jan 26, 2016.
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I spent and enjoyed on yesterday.
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