SHU has been time tracking her days for almost a week. I thought it might be an interesting exercise to track just my afternoons and evenings for a week, since those are the hours my husband and I have been tussling over. My work day is pretty prescribed, and I don’t think I can get anything more out of my mornings, but the afternoons and evenings could definitely be streamlined, and knowing where the time goes would be useful. So here are the first two days of the week, one where I didn’t work out and one where I did.
MONDAY 4/13
3:05 Sort papers at school. Print out PO to give to administrative assistant.
3:30 Drive home.
4:00 Return stuff to Costco. Stay longer than anticipated picking up a couple things.
4:50 Home. Make myself a snack. Text 12yo to ask where he is. Play some two dots
5:10 Start scoring papers while watching Summer House.
6:00 Feed cats + reheat pizza for me and 12yo
6:10 Help 12yo start kitchen towel load
6:15 Dinner with 12yo (husband out of town and 15yo on a date)
6:35 Help 12yo clear plates, do chores around the house
{WHAT ELSE HAPPENED HERE!? I CAN’T REMEMBER!}
7:45 Drive to pick up daughter + GF to take them home
8:45 Call husband – we all talk to him a bit
9:00 Tell 12yo to start reading, engage in brief argument about reading requirement
9:10 More chores (gather trash, take out cans, prep coffee, do dishes, putz around)
9:50 Push 12yo past the bedtime finish line.
10:00 Continue scoring papers while watching Summer House
10:45 Try to get me and the 15yo in bed by 11pm (FAIL!)
TUESDAY 4/14
3:05 Sort + score one set of papers, return papers to 1A hanging files
3:25 Drive home
3:50 Get home, eat snack
4:10 Get ready to work out, get distracted by other stuff around the house
4:30 Start writing this post, set up workout spot
4:50 Start Sim 60 Bike Bootcamp
6:00 Finish workout. It was brutal! (And I had to pause a couple times to cast to the other screen, text the husband, check in on the 15yo, hence the extra 10 mins). Feed cats. Argue with 15yo about AP studying
6:10 12yo dropped off from swim, manage kids a bit
6:15 Post workout stretching + putz around
6:30 Dinner prep + continue this post
6:45 Sit down to dinner with kids
{Dinner was long! We had a lovely discussion about how I might have Aphantasia?!}
7:30 Dinner clean up, dishes, coffee prep
8:30 Shower
9:00 Work on Spanish with 15yo (her teacher left suddenly and she has been getting little to no work for almost two months, so I bought the textbook and workbook and we’re working through it)
9:15 Brush teeth, continue this post, read Summer House season 8 recaps (the only think I love more than watching reality TV is reading Vulture recaps of reality TV)
9:45 Make sure 12yo will get into bed on his own, pick husband up from airport
10:20 Get ready for bed, lay on my acupressure mat for 25 mins
11:05 Lights out
Do you ever track your time? Have you ever made changes in your routine based on what you’ve learned?
It is fascinating. And you are busy!!! I am not seeing where you were doing ‘navel gazing’ and could have been ‘more productive’.
It reminds me of when I was in your peer group with children of those ages. Constantly on the go. Also stressed to the max and point of chronic illnesses from stress related illnesses. This is not a good thing but seems to be very very common these days and why I worry about your cohort of working parents.
Should provide some interesting discussions especially if you are able to keep documenting for a few more days. REALLY INTERESTING and ILLUMINATING. Also probably invisible to outsiders. Is your husband also thinking about tracking his time? His job is so different and, from the outside, appears to be more flexible (I am probably incorrect from his perspective) in terms of have freedom of timing his work obligations. (Or perhaps there are so very many demands there is only emergency work possible.)
Which is why several days of time reporting is required to really get the facts sorted out about how time is being really spent. Like actually writing down precisely what enters ones mouth every bite and swallow.
I have never, ever, tracked my time. I find it surprising because that is right UP my alley.
With my daughter, who is 8, and tends to stay up later than I want her to, I leave her room at 8pm and go to bed. I often hear her go to bed 5 minutes later. We read together, me on my kindle, her -paper books, it is by far my favorite time of day.
This week, when Tony is not traveling and can do the pickups and drop offs, I find myself with actual TIME in the evenings! Today I took a nap after work, then sat outside on the porch to read some.