Time tracking: Thursday and Friday

I didn’t get a ton of feedback either way, but from what I did, a few people seemed interested, so, here’s a couple more days. 🙂

Thursday

CATEGORY	TIME SPENT	ACTIVITIES? Notes?
Deep Work	6.5	Several meetings today + a good amount of head down work prepping for an upcoming quarterly meeting series.
Work	0.75	Misc. work.
Personal Care	1	The usual- ~15 min early (teeth/contacts/etc), plus post-gym shower and getting ready for the day.
Household/ Admin/ Tasks	1	-15 min morning tidy/ kitchen -Then, I spent close to 45 minutes on my lunch break doing a MUCH NEEDED deep clean of our basement refrigerator!! (This is our beer, wine, soft drink, water, etc. fridge.) It had been driving me nuts lately with lingering things like remnants of our Christmas celebration and some sticky stuff spilled and more, and it just needed a full reboot. DONE! ✅)
Kid Time	0	-note definition in last post
Exercise	1	-was at the gym from 6:30- 7:30. Did my Full Body workout #2 of the week. Gym was busier than usual for this time. Annoying.
Sleep	7.5
Leisure solo	0.5	I didn’t spend much time alone today. This 1/2 hour was my morning tea time. (Woke up a bit “late” at almost 5:30, spent 15 minutes getting dressed/ ready/ making my tea, and then spent 5:45- 6:15 drinking tea, updating my log, journal page, and planning my day before gym.)
Leisure (with Ivan)	3.25	-This was where my leisure time went today, clearly! And tbh, this was largely unplanned. We were going to stay home + have tuna tostadas for dinner (tuna + pico de gallo + avocado with crunchy tostadas). However, my workday ended up shifting a bit later than intended (my last “work” entry on the time log was from 5:45-6:00). That was right around the time Ivan walked in the door. He was cranky about a work issue and we chatted in the sunroom with Asher when he also walked in the door from golf. The NFL draft was starting up, too, so we made a last-minute decision to drive over to Buffalo Wild Wings and watch some of the draft and grab some food there instead. (We shared some chips + queso and then shared a grilled chicken sandwich (with Mango Habanero sauce for me, Wild sauce for him. ;)) This whole ordeal took from 6:45- 8:30 on my time log. After a brief hiatus of “Personal Misc.” (15 min where I put PJs on, gave Charlie some belly rubs, etc.), Ivan and I then still watched an episode of The Pitt.
Blog Stuff	0.75	Time spent writing post and reading/commenting on a few blogs.
Charlie	0	Zero! A rarity. Did not end up walking him this a.m. (he played in backyard several times instead), and Asher took him on his evening walk. Although, as noted in other blocks, there are lots of “microdoses” of Charlie in my day. 🙂
Personal Misc.	1.25	This included: – 15 min searching the entire house for my keys!! (found: in my office, in the pocket of my jean jacket I wore the day before…. 🙄) -a block w/ a gas station run, quickly eating breakfast, puttering.. -letting Charlie out once + then storing some cookies in a tupperware + some texts -getting ready to go out, reapplying a little makeup, aka “freshen up” -change into PJs and some more puttering.
Family Time	0.5	LOW again 😩… Ethan was at an away tennis match all evening, and then slept over at a friend’s house (because E was driving his friend the next morning to their weekend overnight tournament). So he literally was not home. Asher got this 0.5 block of catching up in between golf and him going to the gym. Then he was practicing for a long time for a presentation + doing homework and was not in the “spend time with mom and dad” mode. (So, we watched The Pitt.)
Driving	0	Again, the little driving I did I didn’t count. Just really to gas station, gym. Then to dinner, but like, <7 minute drive, and I was with Ivan, so just counted that as “dinner with Ivan”.

Friday

Onto the next day! Day #4 of time tracking.

CATEGORIES	TIME SPENT	ACTIVITES? Notes?
Deep Work	6	Productive day! A couple joint work sessions with co-worker (for my purposes this counts as deep work- it’s fully work, no interruptions). Plus a bunch of solo deep work. This week in general had more space for deeper work and it was soooo nice. Of note here, I decided to work 6 am- 2pm today, because I wanted to clean the house in the afternoon. (Saturday all day plans would make weekend time short.) This ended up being 6 am- 3 pm, with an unexpected hour off (see below).
Work	1.25	Other misc. work
Personal Care	1	This has been very consistent, I’m noticing!
Household/Tasks/Admin	2.25	I spent from 3 pm- 5:15 pm cleaning the house. Obviously not the entire house in 2 hours, but I did the kitchen, living room and sunroom. I consider this the “main area” of the house and if these are clean, the house generally “feels clean”. (The boys handle their rooms/ bathroom + Ivan just did our master bath last weekend. The basement areas are done more periodically.)
Kid Time	0
Exercise	0	0…. Friday is my “rest day” but I was planning to do a stretching or yoga video. However, when I worked later than planned, it didn’t fit really fit in. I mean, it could have, but I opted to sit out on the deck and read The Correspondent for 30 minutes after cleaning + walking Charlie instead. (Note, I DID walk for 30 minutes, but I counted that as Charlie time.)
Sleep	7.5	Pretty satisfied with my sleep this week!
Leisure solo	1.75	This included: -an abbreviated early a.m. morning routine since I started work early- tea, time log, journal -a couple short leisure breaks: a longer text chat with SHU, and a little planning break -reading on the deck! Friday evening! and so nice out!
Leisure with Ivan	2.25	Spent from 7 pm- 9:15 out with Ivan. Yes, this is where I have to admit we went out, solo, 2 nights in a row. I would say this is a super rarity, but these days, it’s kind of not….. 🤷‍♀️ We just did our usual casual Friday night Mexican place. Was a bit tired after the early morning + focused workday + cleaning… just wanted to chill.
Blog stuff	0	Didn’t fit in posting today.
Charlie	0.5	Took Charles on a 30 minute walk after cleaning. Did not end up doing a morning walk (he had backyard time instead).
Personal Misc.	1.5	This block included an hour of unplanned time (which extended my work day). My brother-in-law and gf are looking to buy a house, and they were going to look at a couple places quite near us. I ended up meeting up with them to see them, last minute. Spent about an hour at 9 am doing this- luckily fit into my workday. But I did work later as a result. (They put in an offer! But got beat out by one of 5 other offers. Boo.) The other 30 min included: -“texts/put cleaning stuff away/ check FB/ get Charlie ready for walk” -“lay on couch, snuggle Charlie/ misc. scroll phone” -> this was when we got home from dinner.
Family	0	Ahh! I feel like these logs are not a good look here, lol. I swear we DO spend time with our kids?!?!?! Ethan was gone in Milwaukee though, and Asher stayed after golf practice to golf a full 9 holes with friends… he is currently golf obsessed. He hung out with a friend after until like 10:00 and then came home and went to bed!
Driving	0	(We did drive ~20/25 minutes each way to dinner but I just lumped that into Leisure Ivan time because I considered it part of our dinner date.)

I don’t seem to have much photo evidence from Friday, but here are 2 things I saved from my “scrolling phone time”:

Running view:

I will admit, I’m finding myself wanting to clarify a few things, like, I swear I usually spend more time taking care of Charlie! (I do, seriously….). Or, we don’t usually eat out 2 nights in a row! I typically have more time with the boys!

But as Laura always says, there’s no such thing as a typical day. Or week! We kind of tell ourselves some stories about certain things, but in reality, those “atypical” doctor appointments or meals out or errands or oil changes or unexpected interruptions ARE part of our typical lives… we just don’t always realize it. 🙂

Also, I find I have a slightly strange reaction to the word “leisure”. Maybe this is a societal thing or ingrained from how I was raised. To me, the word “leisure” evokes the image of someone lounging in a bubble bath, or reading a juicy novel, or laying around watching Friends re-runs. But that is not how I’m counting “leisure”, clearly, nor do I think that’s the actual definition.

I’m counting my morning routine time, which in my head feels like “productivity” time (I’m planning day or journaling or usually doing something that I find valuable). But really…it’s mostly leisure! It’s honestly mostly optional stuff that I enjoy.

I’m also counting “leisure” as time out to dinner with Ivan, or time talking to a friend or texting, etc. I do think these things should count as leisure, just not maybe in the traditional sense in my mind. Maybe a better word for me would be “discretionary time”, haha. But I do think in reality, it IS leisure time- I just don’t naturally recognize that as much as if I were listing “bubble bath”. It’s a good thing to notice, I think, because I think it can feel sometimes like, “Oh I’m so busy, I don’t have free time!” because I’m not just doing traditional “leisure” activities, as I think of them. But it’s like, OH YES I DO!

Anyway, this has been fun! I am planning to keep categorizing for at least a full week. Haven’t decided yet if I’ll keep sharing these or be done now? Maybe!

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for watching Ethan play some amazing tennis yesterday! We got to his tournament in Milwaukee. This was my first time seeing him play this season (after he put in a LOT of time in the off season with his tennis buddies), and wow, has he improved since last year!! He and his doubles partner did awesome.