Welcome to Day 5 of the 168 Hours Time Tracking Challenge! If you have made it this far, then you have made it through the workweek. Just two days to go!
I got to bed around 10:45 yesterday after working from 10-10:30. I set the alarm for 6:30 a.m. I was drifting in and out the last half hour before that. Here is how the day went:
6:30 – up, shower, checked email
7-8 – work – filed Fast Co story, prepped for later calls.
8-8:45 – breakfast with my parents at the hotel.
8:45-10 – worked in room, mostly phone calls. I had one hour today when I knew I would be sitting at a desk and could coordinate with people!
10-10:30 – checked out, shuttle driver took me to the venue where I would speak.
10:30 – 11:30 – met various people involved in the program. Gorgeous venue – seats 500+ and it was full! I could see the trees through the window.
11:30-12:55 – lunch plus the program, with awards and the like.
12:55-1:20 – my speech. I was adjusting the length on the fly as I was told I had to end at precisely 1:20. I did. I am a speaker who follows directions. It went well. People were very energetic. They gave me a lovely set of wooden shoes as a speaker gift. This has been a great week on speaker gifts, between the chocolate versions of my books and this.
1:20-1:40 – signed books.
1:40-2 – checked email while waiting for driver. Learned that my 9-year-old got a great part in his musical! I was so nervous about this because I hadn’t heard anything about call backs. Someone asked me before my talk if I was nervous. The honest answer is no. But a community theater audition for my kid definitely has my stomach in knots. I guess they didn’t call him back because they didn’t need to hear him again!
2-2:50 – to Grand Rapids airport. Chatted with driver and stared out window.
2:50-3 – check in, got Starbucks
3- 4:15 worked in airport Starbucks. Unfortunately, there are very few flights to Philly so there was nothing to do but wait until the 5:10 one. Grabbed a sandwich to go at the end.
4:15-4:25 – through security, to gate.
4:25- 4:40 – email, etc. at gate
4:40-5:20 – board, read on plane
5:20- 6:30 – worked on plane – wrote a draft
6:30-6:40- land/read
6:40-7 – to car
7 – 7:35 – drove home (I-476 route around city)
7:35 – 8:10 – came home to find neighbor kid playing Wii with 6-year-old and everyone else in the backyard. Got baby, walked neighbor kid home, fed baby cheese and then gave him his “baba” and put him to bed.
8:10 – posting this, then will probably put the other kids to bed and relax until my bedtime.
Now on to the weekend! I hope you have some fun anchor events planned!
Today I plucked out time log entries that related to my List of 100 Dreams. I made one for the first time all the way back in March 2013:
https://strictlybythebook.wordpress.com/2016/09/17/168-hours-day-5/
I used to be a lawyer, and never liked to track my time. I do want to be more aware of how I’m spending my time, though, and this tracking system is helping me. Another aspect of my life that I’m tracking is my expenses. At the same time that I started Laura Vanderkam’s challenge, I read, “Pay cash for any expense under 20 dollars.” Well, I can do that. And it’s helped me keep some spending under control. For time, I need a similar rule for, say, checking e-mail or surfing the Internet–say, no more than once an hour, for under 20 minutes? Especially important on the weekends–I want to be present in my daughter’s life over the weekends! Happy Friday, everyone, and thank you for this challenge.