2023 Time Tracking Challenge: Day 6- Just keep tracking…

I know from long experience that many earnest time trackers fall off the wagon on the weekend. There are good reasons for this. You might not be near the place where you track your time (laptop, notebook on your desk, etc.). There are fewer markers of time, and so it’s harder to recount what happened.

But I do think it’s worth figuring out where weekend time goes. This is because there are a lot of hours on weekends, and these hours are real time. It really exists and it really counts, and you can do a lot of awesome things with it — including chilling out completely if that’s what you arrange. But good to know that you had that chill out time so you can appreciate it!

After I posted yesterday I relented and took the 15-year-old to Starbucks. We got back at 3:30, and I did one last hour of work (3:30-4:30) before going for a 30-minute head-clearing walk outside. Then I let our nanny go for the day and played with the 3-year-old (with some help from the 11-year-old) from 5:00 to about 6:10 (my husband was running an errand during the last part of this…he had just gotten home from a multi-day trip so I admit I was not thrilled about this). Anyway, he took over around 6:15 and I helped the kids do make-your-own-pizza, which went in the oven and cooked until 6:50 or so. Then we had family dinner for the next 20 minutes.

I cleaned up and made a grocery list and then my husband took the 3-year-old and 11-year-old to both Costco and Wegmans. Much better! At 7:25 I commenced doing Legos for 30 minutes with the 7-year-old. Then at 7:55 I thought I’d like to take a relaxing bath as a nice Friday night, toddler-free activity. So I attempted to do that, but something was wrong with the plug and I couldn’t keep much water in the tub. So I had to keep running the water…which kind of did away with the relaxing bath idea. I gave up around 8:15 and did my puzzle for the next 45 minutes. Or maybe an hour or so. I know the crew was back by 9:30 and I put the 3-year-old to bed, with him down by 10.

I then helped put away the last of the groceries. I hung out with the 7-year-old reading Dog Man again until 10:35. Then I turned his lights out, saw the 13-year-old already had his lights out, and said good night to the others. Then I read from 10:45 to 11:30, at which point I heard the dog howling. I went and found my husband and suggested he take him out. Then I went to sleep, falling asleep around 11:45 (if I don’t have to get up, I can move my bedtime by up to an hour on weekends).

I woke up on what I thought was my own at 7:45 a.m., but as soon as I opened the bedroom door I heard the 3-year-old, so who knows if that is what woke me. I hung out with him until 8:30, at which point others were stirring. I made my coffee and a Pop-tart, got ready, and was in the car to the gym around 9.

Our YMCA is, alas, almost 20 minutes away (15 if zero traffic) so it isn’t terribly convenient. But it is a great gym. I listened to Taylor Swift on the way. I arrived 9:20 and lifted weights for 35 minutes. Then I did 15 minutes on the elliptical (the weight lifting was really the main reason I went). I was back home at 10:30 a.m.

My husband had taken the 3-year-old to the hardware store, so I wrote my last two lines in this week’s sonnet, read my Jane Austen, and then took a shower (ending around 11). I did a few more Legos with the 7-year-old, but then the toddler was back, and the next 45 minutes featured him, getting people lunches, getting the 7-year-old in his ice skating gear, etc.

My husband took the 11-year-old and 7-year-old to ice skating at 12:05, I cleaned up, and played with the 3-year-old again. At some point in here my husband called me because the skating place was saying I hadn’t signed the kids up for the right level and…I’m not sure how that got worked out. Anyway, at 12:45 I tried to put the 3-year-old down for nap/quiet time, but it didn’t really work. He was in his crib for 20 minutes, but now I am writing this sitting in his room while he plays around me.

I’ll try to check in later, but this is just a note of encouragement to try to keep going! You’re pretty close to a full 168 record. Just another day or so to go…

3 thoughts on “2023 Time Tracking Challenge: Day 6- Just keep tracking…

  1. All your talk of puzzles over the past year and your ‘effortfull before effortless’ has inspired me to get back to it doing puzzles. So I worked on a new one that I got for Christmas last night. It’s a Galison brand one which is my favorite puzzle brand! Having a puzzle mat so I can roll up the puzzle and put it away each night has been key for me!

    Sleeping until 7:45 sounds amazing! This was my day to sleep in (we take turns and the early riser gets nap time to spend as they choose). So I did sleep until 7:15 but I have been struggling with insomnia lately so was up reading for 20 minutes during the night. I love reading but it’s not what I want to be doing at 3 am!! So I am glad it was my morning to sleep in!!

  2. I am also ways surprised to hear how late other people’s kids sleep. My 7 year old is up at 6 am on the dot. Every. Single. Day. And my 9 yo is typically up by 7. My teen and preteen sleep late. Of course this means the younger two are in bed earlier. There are, of course, upsides and downsides to everything.

  3. Things fell apart for me on Friday, so I think I’m going to keep tracking for the next two weeks to get a more accurate sense of things. That would encompass a mostly at home week and a start of the semester week (with travel). I feel like I’ve got a decent sense of where my time goes at home, but on travel/teaching weeks, it’s a bit of a mystery. I always leave the office way too late, etc, unless I’ve booked myself a hard stop at yoga.

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