Some days are very average and the even-ness of them can be a welcome thing. Nothing too good or bad happened around here yesterday. It was just an average Monday. 🙂
I felt a little renewed sense of a “fresh start” since it was the first day of a new month. As a result, I dug my heels in on the one habit that has been most annoyingly difficult to conquer of late- the social media use. Clearly, as my recent posts have indicated, social media has not really been my friend lately. It hasn’t added much VALUE to my life, yet it has a strangely firm grip on me too many days. Yesterday I vowed that I would respect my 10 minute time limit come hell or high water, and I did. When the little “time’s up” symbol greyed out the FB/IG icons on my phone, I was DONE! Which meant no social media all afternoon or evening, since I used it up in the morning. lol. I felt some temptation (habit??) to click the icon, but it was nice to just ignore it.
I listened to Sarah’s Best Laid Plans podcast episode on my way to the gym. She was discussing her daily planning rituals and also her morning routine (which is very similar to my own). It came up that her total shower/ get ready time in the morning is only 20 minutes! This seemed very impressive, and some readers on her blog also commented on this- only 20 minutes to shower, get presentable and out the door for work??
It inspired me to time myself during my post workout shower/ get ready routine. I feel like this definitely eats up a bunch of my day, but I know I feel my best when I’m showered and decent looking. Here was my break down:
7:44 = shower and dry off
8:24= lotion, face skincare routine + make-up
4:36= blow dry hair
5:42= get dressed, finish fixing hair, clean up bathroom/ put clothes in hamper, hang towel, etc.
Total= 26:29.19 minutes
This seems reasonable to me I guess, but I suppose for some people maybe this is super long. (I think I often take longer than this, if I’m dilly dallying during the process/ not being efficient.) As discussed on Sarah’s blog, some people just can’t really get away very well without drying their hair. (Me being one of them. With fine hair, a hairdryer is unfortunately kind of a necessity.)
Other bits about my typical day….
- a walk to the gym + a good Back/Biceps workout
- PRODUCTIVE work day! Used my Forest app again to time my deep work blocks and got a lot done, plus I even worked an extra hour from 6:15-7:30 pm to get ahead on a few things.
- Made fish, rice and my favorite way to make zucchini- mixed with onion, tomato, corn, cilantro and cheese melted in. Yum.
- Ethan studied hard for a Science quiz and got an A+ 20/16 (extra credit!). He was very happy.
- Dropped Asher to meet a friend to swim, Ivan picked him up after.
- Read with boys before bed and finally finished Gentle Annie (Civil War nursing book we had been slowly reading)
- Watched an episode of This Is Us before bed.
Thought of the Day:
What are you working on when time fades away??? – James Clear’s newsletter
*Love this. It is such a telling exercise to think about this question. When are you really “in the zone”/ in flow?? That speaks so much I think to what we’re REALLY interested in or enjoy. (NOT referring to like, TV or phone use. But what are you doing when you don’t even think to look up or check the clock? For me, a big one is during my morning writing time! Time does fade away.)
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for living within walking distance to the gym.
GRATEFUL KAE 
i am one of those that don’t dry my hair daily, because I’m lazy and because i live in a tropical country. heheeh…. I only need 10-15 min to get ready, sometimes 10. I see no point of putting make-up these days as we wear mask most of the time and there’s no people in the office, that saves me 5 min.
your dinner looks yummy. never thought about adding cheese to vegetables this way. my girls might like them. 🙂
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I love your idea of timing with a lap timer! I do literally NOTHING to my hair. I let it dry on the way to work. It’s only because it’s chemically straightened that this does not result in disastrous hair. In times when I could not straighten (pregnancy) I just did a bun which takes 30 seconds max. I just refuse to spend any time on my hair!
If I had to guess, mine is:
8 min = shower
4 min = makeup
5 min = get dressed
(I brush my teeth later b/c i usually eat breakfast while helping the kids)
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PS: I listen to Up First on 1.5 speed in the shower which takes about 8 minuttes. If it ends I know it’s time to GET OUT!
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So jealous that you can get away with doing nothing!! When I don’t, let’s just say… it looks exactly like I did nothing with my hair! 😆
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I’m going to try the lap timer tomorrow morning! 🙂
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Haha it was kind of fun! One of those areas I spend time everyday but normally don’t think too much about. 🙂
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I think it takes me at least that long to get ready but maybe even longer! I haven’t timed it though! And I rarely ‘get ready’ when WFH. I wore make up less than 5 times once we started to WFH even though I had video calls a lot of the time. Not wearing make up was sooo good for my skin though and I look ok without make up during the summer/fall when I have a tan (I wear sunscreen but tan super easily).
Time flies for me when I am reading, going for walks and doing deep work at work, like a portfolio review that takes a lot of focus.
Social media is such a temptation for me, too. I limit myself to 20 minutes and try not to override that – but I give myself twice as much time as you do! I will be giving it up for lent, though, so that will be good for me!
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