Dan Mall tagged me, so I’m doing the thing. I’m very much a product of daily rhythms so I’m happy to share.
6:30am — My cat headbutts me awake asking for food. I get up and feed the cat. He has a bad thyroid and meows obnoxiously throughout the whole process, but it gets done. I push a button to start my first cup of coffee on our Jura and start browsing headlines.
6:50am — Kids wake up, get them watching a Netflix while I make breakfast.
7:45am — Get son logged onto Zoom School. Occasionally I’ll write or play Barbie with my daughter during this time.
8:45am — Wife and son take daughter to preschool. I shower and get ready for work.
9:00am — Begin work. Work is broken up by numerous coffee breaks, bathroom breaks, and meetings throughout the day. I tend to hit a productivity stride starting around 2pm, so mornings are spent catching up on projects, blogs, and emails while reserving the afternoon for more focused deep work.
??:?? — I regularly forget to eat lunch. This is a bad habit. Whenever I do eat lunch, it’s usually at my desk while watching some YouTubes. Look, I ain’t proud of this, but it’s what we got going on.
5:15pm — Leave work, walk twelve steps to the kitchen.
5:30pm — Eat dinner at the dining table with kids. They peel off mid-meal.
6:00pm — Walk the dog, listen to audiobooks.
6:40pm — Get kids bath’d and ready for bed.
8:15pm — Wash dishes, listen to audiobooks, minimal tidying.
9:30pm — Leisure time. Most nights I’ll hop onto Discord with friends and play video games. Currently it’s a mix of Overwatch and Call of Duty: Warzone. When not playing video games, it’s a mix of reading, writing, DnD, recording Aside Quest, or watching Star Trek with my wife.
12:00am — Read until I fall asleep.
It’s worth noting two things. This is my pandemic schedule. When the kids are back at regular public school, the day starts even earlier and my dog walk moves after the morning drop-off walk. Also, in a week or so I’ll be in my new backyard office workspace. This will hopefully shift my productivity windows a bit and enforce a proper lunch routine where I leave the physical office to eat in the main house. The distance will also probably temper late night gaming.
I’ve also long-considered the idea of a faux-commute. Leave my house 30 minutes before work and walk around the block a few times and do the same when I leave work. Decompressing from work is so vital, but I rarely take the opportunity to do it, but at a minimum I do think the physical separation of walking to the shed is going to work wonders for the work/life balance.
Anyways. That’s my day. Every day. On repeat. This damn pandemic. I won’t tag anyone because I have emotional baggage about chain letters from the early Internet days, but I’d love to read “typical days” from people who are nothing like me.