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What's your daily schedule?

  
 
Mirror
02:08 / 13.04.05
This is sort of a related question to the one I asked in the TV thread. Obviously some 'lithers spend a bit of time in front of the tube, but what does the rest of the daily schedule look like? Varied or repetetive? Dramatic, or dull as dirt?

For my part:
I wake at 5:30 and do an hour of yoga, then make lunch, eat breakfast, cycle to the bus stop and ride the bus for 45 minutes in to work. I work for around 9 hours, taking a bit of a walk around lunch. Two days a week I have a continuing education class, so on those days my lunch break involves cycling to campus for my class and back.

After work I either go to the rock gym (2-3 days a week) or go back to campus to play Go (Wednesdays) and on such nights don't ordinarily make it home before 9:30 or 10:00. Thursday nights I usually have homework to do. If I have a spare evening I'll try to write a bit of code for personal projects or check out Barbelith.

On weekends I usually spend at least one full day in the mountains climbing or snowboarding depending upon the season, and the other day is usually taken up with mundane household tasks that don't get done during the week, and perhaps doing a bit of reading or gardening.

The thing with this schedule is, a ton gets left out and even the high-priority items (climbing and go) don't feel like they're getting enough attention. I never seem to make any progress on personal computer projects, I haven't touched my forge or woodworking tools in months, my last batch of homebrew was drunk before the new year, and I only manage to get together with friends once or twice a month at best.

It's the work, dammit. I don't have time for it.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
02:30 / 13.04.05
The sad thing is that as a temp I have no schedule to speak of. Everything's entirely dependant on work or not- so I'll describe what it's kind of like.

When I'm working I get up somewhere between the hours of 7 and 8am. I brush my hair (I have to do this because I use hard shampoo and counditioner and if you don't brush it your hair becomes a tangled mess), wash and brush my teeth. Turn the TV on to the news to see if anything's happened during the night, catch the weather report and transport details. Brush my hair, dry it and dress. Then I start to panic because I'm late. I shove everything into my handbag, worry about CDs and maybe my music taste my change by 2pm. Decide it won't, run down the stairs, drink a glass of orange juice, run up the stairs because I thought my coat was in the kitchen. Run down the stairs and out of the flat, pausing in the hallway to check I have my keys.

I walk quickly to the tube/bus/workplace, in a haze of insanity, panicking because I'm late. On the way I have to buy breakfast because I'm always too late to eat at home. I twitch and listen to a CD if I'm on public transport, wishing the damn bus/train would go faster. I get in to work, occasionally on time if I'm lucky and make myself a cup of tea and then stare at a computer screen. If I'm having a bad day then I manage to hit barbelith within the first hour. If it's good I might make it until lunchtime.

I get lunch. Usually it's rubbish because I'm scared of going to places where they look at you and try to engage with you at lunchtime. I also don't like walking very far because, basically, my day's usually been soul destroying by this point and I'm really hungry. I go back to work and eat.

The afternoon continues in much the same way as the morning.

After work I either go home and collapse or go to the pub and moan. At home I sit down and watch TV or read for hours at a time. I occasionally have an argument with my creature of the friend lagoon about something political or religious. This can be fun or horrible depending on how irritated we are. If I cook properly it's a miracle because my soul has been destroyed and really I secretly want to sleep.

What gets left out? On a day like the one above everything that actually means something. It becomes dirty, messy and I'm constantly starving but I have no energy to do anything unnecessary in the short space of time allowed me. I manage very little. If I'm not working about half of everything gets done.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
02:33 / 13.04.05
This week I've done the washing up. I'm sorry I've just... you have time to cycle and take a class in your lunch break???
 
 
Mirror
02:39 / 13.04.05
The cycling's only about 15 minutes, to and from class. And the place where I work is pretty relaxed. Of course, on days that I'm taking a class, this means that lunch is at 9:30 in the morning and thus the rest of the workday can drag on a bit.
 
 
iconoplast
03:02 / 13.04.05
Mine varies day to day, but a week looks like this:

Mon and Weds: Wake up at 6:30. 1 hour of 'K'ung' - drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes and staring at barbelith / google news / webcomics. Shower, dress, experience wardrobe anxiety, dress, drive to school (stop for coffee and cigarettes)
School runs until 5. Get home, maybe grab coffee with a friend, maybe try and do some minor errand, then go to an AA Meeting at 7 or 7:30. Dinner with friends afterwards, home for the phone call from the girl and bed around 1. (I'm not sure how I get from 8:30 to 1 without doing anything but I do).

Tues and Thurs: sleep until 10 or 11, have a bit more k'ung time, and have class from 2 to 4. Or not. But generally I try to at least be on campus, near a building in which there's learning going on. Then I drop by a friend's on campus office for online bridge, go to a meeting, and experience the same loss of time as a late dinner gets me home around midnight or one.

Fridays it's school in the morning, then getting beat up for skittles at work until 7, then Poker or Date Night, alternating weeks. I can't believe I have dat enight with my girlfriend, but... yeah. You'll notice she hasn't made it into the weekly schedule yet. Hence, biweekly date night.

Saturdays I either wake up at the girl's, or drive there, and come home Saturday night, so that...

Sunday I wake up and think about doing homework until I think of something more urgent / entertaining / frivolous to waste a day on.

Lather, rinse, repeat.
 
 
Grey Area
08:38 / 13.04.05
Wake up at 6:00, listen to Today programme until quarter to seven, change into running gear, stretch, go for run until 7:30. Shower, breakfast, dress for work. Saunter up to university buildings at 8:30, review material for lectures and photocopy slides on acetate. Do academic stuff* until lunch around 12:30. Lunch. Do academic stuff until evening (end time is flexible...could be as early as 16:00, as late as 0:00). Go home, switch on radio, listen to six o'clock news, six thirty comedy and The Archers while cooking/eating dinner. Read books, watch DVD's, tidy up the flat, do laundry and stuff like that until 23:00-ish. Go to bed.

Weekend schedule:
Go out Friday night. Drink. Dance. Sing. Wake up Saturday lunchtime, eat, go to local bookstore, sit in store drinking coffee with the other Saturday regulars, go food shopping, cook. Possibly go out Saturday night. Drink. Dance. Sing. If not going out, read, watch DVD's or have people round for dinner. Sundays are pretty much recover lost sleep time.

*'academic stuff' in this case includes writing lectures, meeting students, jousting on office chairs with window opener poles, playing music, writing articles, avoiding the Head of School, checking e-mail, designing posters, reviewing books, fishing for consultancy contracts and marking.
 
 
Katherine
09:02 / 13.04.05
Get up at 6am, drink at least two pots of tea to ready my nerves for the day whilst reading one of the large number of books or pdfs that seem to be building up. Get washed, dressed and teeth brushed.
Leave for work about 8.30am get bus to work and in work by 9.20am.
Sort letters and do any accounts that need doing, answer letters, chase people(suppliers who are late, customers who haven't collected, the boss so work gets from the lab to me this century) whilst checking various websites and webcomics.
Then the rest of the day varys with viewings and portrait sittings to do, as it's raining here alot of people will cancel as they can't be bothered to shift themselves whilst the weather yucky. If no sittings then various office work and more accounts can be done.
Hopefully go home at 5.30pm although at xmas it's more likey to be alot later.
Get home roughly about 6.15pm (apart from saturday when I go around to the boyfriends ), get dinner, surf the net and read some more. Hopefully remembering to answer some letters from people.
Phone the boyfriend for bedtime chat. Sleep and repeat.

Day off (sunday)wake up around boyfriend's house and enjoy a relaxing day before leaving his at 8-9pm and trying to dash back so I can repeat the week over.
 
 
Jub
09:38 / 13.04.05
I get up at 7 and strrreetch. Do the usual morning stuff and then leave for the train. Get to Kensington about 9ish for work.

I usually go straight home and immediately go for a run, followed by a long shower. Cook dinner and then watch TV with my housemate and smoke. Ahhhh.

I don't get to see my girlfriend anymore as she's teacher training and very busy. Poor me.
 
 
Mike Modular
10:58 / 13.04.05
No fixed schedule as such, I work different hours all the time, but an example of a full working day:

Woken by alarm at 8. Hit snooze. Get out of bed sometime between 8.10 and 8.50. Make tea or coffee, maybe some orange juice and a banana if there are any. Check email/Barbelith/Guardian, smoke cigarettes and listen to some music. Do bathroom things.

Race to bus stop, sometime between 9-9.30, depending how late I am. (Hopefully) get bus to tube, get tube to Waterloo, walk to South Bank and work.

If I'm a bit early, or there's no rush to start working, get some breakfast from the canteen and have a cigarette. Then it depends what the day holds, really. Could be quiet, could be extremely busy, could be a lot of waiting around for stage crew to finish so I can set speakers and run cables. Who knows. Day punctuated by fag breaks.

Mealtimes can vary. Usually have at least one in the work canteen, but quality varies daily, so often venture out to the Royal Festival Hall or Stamford Street for a sandwich.

If I'm operating a show in the evening, then depending how busy it is I might get to read, draw or go online, to reduce the tedium. Then, quite often stay for a drink in the bar and get home around midnight. Time of work the next day usually has no bearing on when I get to bed, so sleep is lost or gained accordingly. Try to unwind with TV, internet, comics before drifting off to gentle music...

Days off (sundays and variable other) and free time: Sleep, shopping, domestic chores, movies, galleries, gigs, visiting girlfriend (in different city). Evenings off are rare for me, I have to make the most of them. Suppose I do quite a bit, but there's always longing for more. Eeeh, there aren't enough hours in the day, are there....?
 
 
ibis the being
12:23 / 13.04.05
I dislike being too bound to routine. My life has a good amount - not so little that it's all chaos, but not so much that I get stultified.

Sometimes I'm painting, sometimes I'm temping, sometimes I'm not working at all. I always get up early-ish on weekdays, even when I'm out of work. On painting days I throw on my painter clothes and drive - on temping days I shower and agonize over the right office monkey outfit, then take the bus. On painting days I pick up a coffee somewhere on my way to work. On temping days I'm usually at the mercy of my workplace, and whatever foul or surprisingly good brew they have available. Painting days, I treat myself to a good lunch because I'm making good money and need fuel. Temping days, I confess I often skip lunch because the math (unpaid time off + expensive sandwich) just kills me.

In the evenings, it's either takeout or I cook. My man DOES NOT cook. If I'm painting, I'm often totally exhausted, so we're a little more prone to takeout. If I'm temping or not working, I'm usually cool with cooking something yummy. Especially now that it's grilling season - throw some animal (perhaps an ear of corn) on the grill and toss up a salad, that's easy.

Then we both settle into this sort of quietly insane multimedia orgy. On any given night, my boy and I both are indulging in some combination of watching TV, reading magazines, playing on the Internet, and playing Gameboy (trying to top each other's records on Dr. Wario). Not all at once, but rarely only one at a time. We might also be doing laundry, since we're lucky enough to have machines in the kitchen.

Once a week my boyfriend has league night for darts. On that night I either go down to the bar, if it's a home game and I feel like it, or I get together with my girlfriend to have a few drinks and girltalk.

Friday's Debauchery Day, pretty reguarly. All our friends come over where I make mixed shots and everyone plays darts before we go out to the bar around 11. Saturday is breakfast sandwiches and coffee, taking it easy all day. Saturday night we give our brain cells time to recoup, go see a movie or something, unless there's an important party to go to and then all bets are off. Sunday is more breakfast and coffee and the boring stuff like grocery shopping.
 
 
skellybones
13:21 / 13.04.05
In the week I usually get up around 8, having repeatedly kept the alarm on snooze for the past 45 minutes. Shower, put on dull office clothes and then walk to tube. Read and listen to music on the tube in an attempt to block out rush hour completely, and roll into work slightly late after buying some fruit from the fruit man.

Depending on the time of the month, work is usually either painfully quiet, in which case I read various websites/blogs and email friends, or stupidly busy, in which case I listen to music and try not to get stressed about deadlines. I'm not sure which I prefer.

I go to the gym for an hour most lunchtimes, and then grab some lunch to eat at my desk.

The afternoon is much the same as the morning only it seems to last longer. Then tube, walk home, get changed and chill for an hour or so. Usually try and cook something, even if it’s only a stir-fry.

The rest of the evening usually features a combination of writing, reading, Internetting, talking to housemates and watching DVDs.

The weekends usually involve drinking, dancing, hangovers, big newspapers, pubs, takeaways and whatever comes along.
 
 
grant
15:20 / 13.04.05
Some of y'all don't know how good you've got it.

The schedule for the last couple days for me has gone like this:

3:30 am -- Eyes shoot open, there's an elbow in my ribs and some kind of distant sound like a malfunctioning electronic toy, under which I hear: "She's awake again. It's your turn." Trundle out of bed to negotiate with nightmare-ridden, not entirely awake but entirely screaming two-year-old. Discover new and exciting way to placate the child. "Yes, something on feet, shoes, OK, shoes on feet now, yes, stop kicking, shoes, no shoes, shoes off, no, OK, shoes back on." (Actual conversation. Pause two seconds at each punctuation mark.)

4:10-:30 - Back to sleep.

6:20 - alarm goes off. hit snooze.

6:45 - Told to get up, get going, things need to be done, why are you the only person in bed, etc. If toddler has risen, she is generally placed in or near the bed to assist with my rising activities. When she laughs, this is a good start to the day.

6:55-7:30 - Make tea, toast, microwave bacon for woman, boy, girl, self, sometimes prepare lunch for girl. Feed dog.

7:45 - Take boy to school. 20 minute round trip, and I'm unshowered and dressed in yesterday's clothes.

8:10 - Return home. Sometimes see off woman, girl, generally arrive after they've left. Breathe deep breath. I now have an hour to myself. Think about preparing lunch for self, realize there's nothing in fridge (EVERY SINGLE MORNING). Eat toast, drink tea. Consider showering.

8:20 - Go out to workshop, fiddle with PVC pipe, glue and tablesaw (dangerous! sleep + inhalants + cutting tools!) to gradually assemble chicken tractor. On other days, this is spent burning mix CDs, tweedling on guitar, whatever. Personal project time.

9:00 - Realize I should have already been in the shower.

9:10 - Realize I should have already been on the road to work.

9:20 - Leap hastily into shower, realize I still need more breakfast since two pieces of toast won't cut it.

9:40 - Nibbling something in car, embark on daily I-95 adventure. One of the key parts of the daily routine is that I put my shoes on in the car. Key. If for some reason I put them on before I leave the house, I feel weird.

10:15 - Arrive at work, apologize for being late. Start eyeing snack table, start opening browser windows despite myself.

11:15 - Give in to whatever crap is on snack table (pastry, German chocolate cake, mini Snickers bars, whatever), curse myself for not eating bigger breakfast.

Spend rest of day alternating between net slacking and producing tabloid copy, researching story ideas.

1:00 pm -- Start getting hungry for lunch, think about how much money is not in pocket, curse self for not preparing/packing lunch.

1:30 - Tell self: Don't leave until you've finished this story, grant.

2:30 - Go out to find a lunch place that's still open and within means.

3:30 - return to work.

5:00 - say bye to the 9-to-5ers.

6:00 - say bye to the people working my shift, tell them, Oh I'm just here until I finish this other story.

6:30 - realize I'm way late and likely to face domestic wrath.

7:15 - Traffic is good. I pull into my driveway. Short order: dinner, hear about everyone's day, help boy with homework (after prying him away from video games, television, what have you), get girl in bath, listen to woman's stories of work, discuss paperwork, career contingencies (woman is getting master's degree this month and will likely change jobs). Engage in minor home repairs & cleaning.

9:00 - Finish up with boy's homework, get girl in bed. Promise self tomorrow night, it'll be earlier. Start getting boy in bed.

10:00 - Get boy in bed, start getting woman in bed.

11:00 - Woman sleeping, walk the dog. Enjoy quiet. Consider getting sleep. Pick up either heavy novel or latest netflix no one but me wants to watch. (Last night, Hellboy!) Some nights, squidge around on laptop audio software but recognize this is a deadly thief of hours.

1:30 am - Wake up on couch with either fat book on lap or end of video playing. Trudge off to bed, dizzy.

Three to four hours later, repeat cycle.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
15:25 / 13.04.05
I'm so glad I'm not the only person who's always late.
 
 
grant
15:34 / 13.04.05
Note: Evenings will soon be different, since woman no longer in occasional night classes/internships. She has her brown belt! Go, woman!

Also note: I am by far the most productive at work during that final 30-45 minutes after everyone has gone away and I'm up against some sort of personal deadline to get the hell out of the newsroom.
 
  
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