A Day In the Life: Getting Things Done Part III

Posted on April 21, 2010 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Productivity

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A friend of mine said that my daily schedule must be very empty for me to accomplish all that I do. “You have a simple life, right? That’s why you have so much time.”

While I do try to simplify my life, that doesn’t mean it’s empty. And my productivity is as much dependent on simplicity as it is on organization and routines.

This week I will be sharing my daily schedule so that my friend can understand the differences.

Evenings

Evenings are my time. This is the only time in my life (outside of weekends) where I do what I wish, rather than fulfill obligations. So I take this time very seriously — it is where the balance of my life comes in, and I don’t want to fritter it away on meaningless activities.

Clean The Kitchen

The first step after dinner is to complete cleanup. A messy kitchen is a stressor for me first thing in the morning, so I make sure the kitchen is cleaned up. I put the dishes in the dishwasher, then wipe down counters and table. Next I hand wash anything that requires it, or the items that wouldn’t go in the dishwasher. Before leaving the kitchen I will start the dishwasher.

Designated Activities

My evening activities vary, depending on the day. I try to keep myself available to my husband and daughter, yet we pretty much do our own things during the week. However, I set aside nights for certain things to make sure that they don’t creep unnoticed and unneeded into my precious free time.

Mondays are my desk days. This is the day that I do maintenance on all three computers, clean off my desk, and sort the filing. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are unscheduled, so I may read, do a craft, or write. Thursdays are Brownies meetings, which are exhausting. Fridays are family movie night, and Saturdays are game nights. Sundays I prep for the coming week, including laying out the week’s blog articles.

Bedtime For Bonzo

At 8:00 two things happen: the first is that my alarm goes off to remind me to give the elderly cat his second insulin and feed the felines. The second is I send my daughter to the bathtub. (While I’m not in the room with her, I do have to monitor what she is doing, or she will spend hours in the tub). During the bath time, I am either upstairs in the office doing computer tasks, or doing a general pick up/put away around the house.

At 8:30 we are in her room, and she is ready for bed. We will read a story together, or talk a bit, or if my husband is traveling, we will call him and listen to him read the book chapter from a shared book. Lights out is no later than 9:00.

My Before Bed Routine

I then will take some time to get myself ready for the next day. Since I am not a morning person, this consists of everything I can do ahead of time: putting my clothes in the bathroom, setting up the coffee pot, packing my briefcase and putting the next day’s tasks on the task list.

While this may seem extreme to some people, it really does get the morning off to a smooth start for me.

Winding Down

From the time I complete my prep until about 10:00, I wind down. I try not to be on the computer, but I may be reading blog articles, or doing editing work. I may join my husband for a short bit of PBS, or read a book. The point is that I am winding down so that I can sleep.

While I would love to say that lights out is 10:00 for me, more often than not I am up until 11:00. This does leave me a bit short on sleep, and probably doesn’t help the morning fog. But I aim for 10 as much as possible.

Thus ends my evening routines. Next time will be my weekends.

Photo by Kevin

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