Good morning to everyone who is following along with the September Reset Time Tracking Challenge. If you made it through one day of tracking than at least 24 hours are done. You can do this!
(And if you didn’t really track yesterday? You can always start now. You can also just estimate how yesterday went and then you’re already on day 2 anyway.)
I hit post on this blog at 5 p.m. yesterday. Then I got in the car to get my 16-year-old from cross-country practice. They were running a little late so I was listening to Mozart in the car until he came out. We got home around 5:30. Then B (nanny) and I cooked dinner (pasta) and ate with the kids around 5:55-6:10. I got in the car and drove downtown (6:15-6:45), parked, and walked to my rehearsal.
This was the first Choral Arts Philadelphia rehearsal of the season and it was fun to see everyone and sing with them again. We have two new members who I know from other places, so I chatted with both of them. We sang through a lot. The October concert will feature lots of American hymns and spirituals and also the Chichester Psalms. I have sung those, but it has been a while. The good news is that it all came back quickly enough. This choir learns music fast. By our next rehearsal everyone will know all the notes and we can polish. I love the challenge. Anyway, we rehearsed until 9 p.m. I walked to the garage, got my car, and was home at 9:35 p.m.
Alas, the 6-year-old was not asleep (the older kids were in charge of him at this point as my husband was gone). So I read him a short story (the pointedly chosen “Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late”) and sat with him while he fell asleep (scrolling). I could hear the deep breathing by 10 p.m. At that point I went to chat with the other kids and say good night to them. I shut the house and got ready for bed. Then I read in bed from 10:30-11 p.m. I will admit that if I were not publishing how I spent my time I might have just kept scrolling. But I know that I might give the advice that even in a full night there is time for reading as a Golden Hour activity. So I grabbed one of my books from the library and kept reading it and actually got quite into it. That was a pleasant way to spend 30 minutes, so yay.
I fell asleep a few minutes after 11 p.m. It was not the most restful night, though I am not sure why. I woke up twice before waking with my alarm at 6:35 a.m. I showered, dressed, and got my 11-year-old up around 6:55. I got my coffee, got him breakfast, and sent him out the door at 7:14 to get to his bus. Then I got the 6-year-old breakfast (he was up), woke the 14-year-old at 7:25, made eggs for her, her older brother, and me, and then woke the 16-year-old at 7:30. We all ate breakfast, I did about 10 minutes or organizational work and planning and then drove the two high schoolers to school from 8:00-8:20 (B was with the 6-year-old). I made myself another cup of coffee and was at my desk writing this by 8:30 a.m.
I am excited that I have about 3-3.5 hours carved out this AM for deep work on book writing. I’m traveling later today but that trip starts later than it did in my original mental model for this week. So there is time. It feels like a bonus!
I hope your day is going well so far. I’ll likely check back in later today with a report on how I spent Tuesday. If you’re noticing anything about your time feel free to share it! You can also email me directly.
In the meantime, I wanted to share an episode of the A Day in Her Life podcast — Elizabeth Fitzsimmons, a former ambassador and mom of five talks about bringing her family all over the world. She mentions some of my work, including Big Time. Please check that out!
I am always so impressed by your productivity, but I just couldn’t and wouldn’t want to gulp down my dinner in 15 minutes, even an easy to eat pasta. If you’re not rushing out somewhere are you a fast eater anyway? How do you chat to people you’re eating with and eat so quickly? I think it may be a cultural difference between Europeans (like me) and Americans, because my poor kids only get 25 mins to get and eat lunch!? I think I spend 1.5-2h per day eating my 3 meals!
@Jennie- I really wasn’t gulping it down. Maybe I didn’t have that much of it, but I ate a real meal with my kids and we chatted and it took 15 minutes. I definitely eat lunch in less than 25 minutes! (though cafeteria lines can be long, so that can be a problem for kids at school…)
I need to think about that… lower volume is a good tip. Hmm. I am spending way too much time eating so this is helpful. Thank you!