How Do I Manage My Time
These days, we’re all really busy. Work, families, trying to have a little fun every now and again. So, how do we manage all the things we want to do so we can cram them all into our available time?
I am fortunate to be one of those people who can work from home full time during the global pandemic that has gripped the world. In fact, I find that I work more than full time from home, to the point of virtual burnout. I’m also a parent, and have a house/yard to take care of. Add in the fact that I’d like to have a little bit of fun every now and again too, and time quickly becomes an issue.
So, how do I manage all these things?
Badly. The answer is badly.
First, let’s get the whole “morning” thing out of the way. I hate them. I am not a morning person. I’m not now, nor have I ever been. Growing up my dad would be up with the Sun, and I never understood why. I still don’t. Mornings are for sleeping through. I get up when I have to, and usually begrudgingly.
Every work day, I have an 8:00AM meeting scheduled. Sometimes that gets bumped to 7:00AM, but usually not. I spend this meeting ingesting as much caffeine as I can to make it through, and that’s the start of my day.
I work through 5:00PM or 6:00PM, depending on requirements of the day. Usually I eat my lunch at my desk.
Once I’m finally off work, it’s already time to find something for my kids to eat. With a virus raging across the globe, we try to cook at home as much as possible. We usually finish dinner by 7:00PM to 8:00PM, depending on what we had and how long it took to cook.
I actually feel really bad about this part because the kids aren’t done eating until that late. When I was a kid, we ate dinner between 5:00PM and 6:00PM. 8:00PM seems super late.
Once dinner is done, there’s cleanup to be done. This is a long process considering how much is used for a typical meal.
Kids bed time is 9:00 right now. It used to be earlier, but since we don’t have to be up super early for school right now, I’m being a complete slacker and letting them stay up that late.
After the kids are sleeping, I need to get some exercise. My job basically requires me to sit at a desk all day, so if I don’t get at least a little physical activity in a day, I balloon quickly.
We’re now probably at 11:00PM, and I’ve done nothing but feed my kids, work, and exercise all day long. Most of the time, I’m exhausted by now. Sometimes I’ll plop down on the couch with my laptop and write a blog post. Sometimes I don’t. I might catch a TV show or something before bed.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
There are a lot of things I’d really like to do. I have projects that I’ve been wanting to do. I’ve been wanting to learn more Python, and maybe even dust off my C/C++ skills. Or here’s a weird idea, maybe read a book or play a game?
I never seem to have the time to do any of those things, or if I do, I’m just too exhausted to get started.
I’m curious how you manage your time in the day. Are you better at it than I am? Do you have tools that you use that make time management easier? There’s got to be a better way to do it than how I’m doing it.
Day 79 of the #100DaysToOffload Series.
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