A Day in the Life #1: Workday

Monday 22.2.21

I thought it would be fun to record a day-in-the-life for anyone who’s as nosy about people’s routines as I am! I’m a creature of habit, which is useful for self-employment and working from home, although I’m happy to switch things around whenever necessary. I try to work intensively and then switch off completely; drifting between the two makes me tired and anxious. Every day is different and is mainly determined by my energy levels/health – this one’s slightly better than average, as Mondays often are, and writing this post kept me accountable. I wasn’t quite as productive during the rest of the week.

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8:00 Normal morning routine: Bathroom, medication/water, coffee, Italian on Duolingo, breathing exercise on Headspace, Bible reading, and other reading (Fast Focus by Damon Zahariades).

8:40 Dressed, fifty deadlifts with my 16kg kettlebell (daily minimum to get me moving), brushed teeth, washed face, and skincare.

9:00 Admin (AKA getting organised and trying to remember what on earth I’m meant to be doing today!). Answered a few texts. Messaged my friend, which I do every Monday to remind her to be sociable, and vice versa…Covid hasn’t helped, but hey, we’re doing our best.

9:30 Got on video chat with my wonderful writer/editor friend, which we now do most weekdays – will write a blog post about this soon. After a few minutes of lively writerly discussion, we both got to work in our ‘virtual office’. I spent nearly two hours working on a third edit of someone’s short story collection, with occasional pauses to stretch my legs or drink water.

12:00 I took a break and called my man for a chat; he’s five hours behind so I can catch him before he goes to work. Rescued my mirror from down the side of the bed – traumatic, that’s all I’ll say. Put on some makeup and took a Monday selfie for Facebook, just so I appear alive and awake. Food time!

13:00 Reading. I’m currently ploughing through six different books on my Kindle – a novel, an autobiography, a short story collection, a book about procrastination, the book about focus, and one about getting more done with less effort (mm, lovely). I stuck with the focus one today though because I’m trying to stay, um…focused.

14:00 Walked around the block with Mum, as we do every day. It’s lovely to have sunshine, especially after the stormy weather.

14:30 Rested.

15:00 Critiqued a section of a mentee’s audio play. He’s a very creatively talented young man.

16:00 Ate some pikelets, which I can’t help feeling are just failed crumpets. Lay down for a bit and stared into space because life is interesting but tiring. Bit more reading.

16:30 Video meeting with my mentee (I’m actually one of his PAs and always love our chats/outings!). We discussed his audio play and came up with good ideas.

17:30 Removed makeup, showered, and skincare.

18:00 Wandered round the house aimlessly, chatted to Mum, mulled over a blog post idea, watched a Youtube video about finances, and had dinner.

18:40 Washed and dried dishes.

19:10 I’m now in the present, working on this blog post – that’s a bit meta! This is where I’ll leave it. I’d intended to do some more writing, but my brain has been overactive today and I need to switch off. Time to read, relax, chat and, probably blob around watching Youtube.