I am writing this from a hotel room in NYC. There isn’t much to report of yesterday after the last entry. I worked until about 9:40 p.m., then chatted with the 9-year-old (who was still up). I shut the house and read until 10:30, then tried to go to sleep. It took a bit, given the later wake-up yesterday morning. I probably drifted off somewhere closer to 11. Here’s the report on how Day 2 of the 168 Hours Time Tracking Challenge went for me.
6:05 – up with baby. He helpfully pointed out that it was still “dark outside.”
6:10-6:35 – We snuggled on the sofa and watched Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. The 4-year-old joined us around 6:30.
6:35- 7 – make pancakes. All four kids are down by around 7. They eat and I make my breakfast (eggs and some leftover pizza rolls from previous night’s dinner).
7-7:15 – hangout with kids. Screen time may have happened. Get crazy idea that 9-year-old might be able to watch the little guy long enough that I can shower without paying a babysitter. (My husband has been traveling the first half of the week, and then will be home to take over for me while I’m traveling.)
7:15-7:30 – shower! With no one in the room banging on the door!! Get dressed.
7:30 – go downstairs and see 9-year-old standing far away from toddler, who has filled his diaper. But nothing disastrous happened, so all good. I feel I’ve reached a milestone here.
7:30 -8 – diaper change, hangout with kids, start a load of laundry, pack lunch for 4-year-old.
8-8:30 – nanny here. I work.
8:30-8:40 – boys to bus.
8:40-9 – massive quantities of Cub Scout related paperwork (I’ll be going through my second background check in a year — I had to do this to volunteer at school too).
9-10:30 – work, scheduling interviews, and writing the City Journal feature on working stay-at-home moms.
10:30-11:30 – to salon for a hair cut and blow out. Another stylist came up and told my stylist that she loved my hair color and wanted her to do hers like it. My stylist: “She does it herself with a box from the drug store!” Which is true. 9 1/2 A light ash blonde, baby.
11:30-noon. Home, eat lunch with daughter (who is having a snack).
noon-12:35 – work. Pack up.
12:35-1 – drive to train station.
1-1:30 – in station, do a phone interview, email.
1:30-2:50 – work on train, mostly ideas for the book concept.
2:50-3:30 – Penn Station and to midtown via subway.
3:30-4:20 – tape a video interview (will link to the specific organization when it’s up)
4:20-4:30 – walk to hotel and check in.
4:30-5 – work in hotel.
5-5:30 – walk to NYPL science, industry & business library, where I’ll be talking.
5:30-6 – pre speech prep w/organizer.
6-7:30 – talk re time management as part of CEO series. It went well! We had a good crew, including a few people I’d met virtually before.
7:30 -8 – end, walk to Zenga.
8-10- dinner at Zenga with speech organizer. She gave me chocolates that have my book covers printed on them! How cool is that?
10-10:30 – walk to hotel. Now I’m here, writing my log, and plan to get to bed soon.
How did your second day of tracking go? Did you stick with it? It’s ok not to be too detailed, or even to skip a few blocks. Do what you can to keep going. I’ll be back tomorrow!
Still trucking on Day 2! Today felt less fragmented than yesterday, but also definitely busier. I fit in big blocks of writing and volunteer work, but neglected exercise. You win some, you lose some.
https://strictlybythebook.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/168-hours-day-2/
@Mireille- two out of three sounds good to me!
I was at your talk and it was great! Had to run a bit early to make it home for toddler’s bedtime. She had a meltdown anyway because not enough mommy time.
@D- thank you so much for coming! I appreciate it! And so sorry about the toddler meltdown. ugh. You have my sympathies there.
That moment you realize you don’t have to wait until the youngest is sleeping before you shower is amazing! Congrats on that milestone (and on the post-6am wakeup times).
I really bounced around between work and the internet yesterday, and my time log shows it. I also started keeping a tally of how many times I checked email/instagram on my phone — even with the accountability making me resist sometimes, it was still 12! My goal is a solid 2-hour block this morning … so I’d better get started 🙂
This is my second go around for recording time. Like the last time, I have become hyper aware of areas that need work. I know that I work a certain number of hours, sleep a number, and so on. What I have come to find are areas of inefficiency that need better solutions. The after school issue is one that has baffled us for a long time. But even after just a few days, I am seeing more areas that I am losing hours in activities that need to be batched together. Easy ones would be: check facebook, email, respond to random questions, and menial work while at ball field. More difficult ones: what seems to be a daily trek to the store to get supplies for school projects. Each kid brought home a different project one day right after the other. And they all needed different supplies! (this is this time, but this kind of stuff crops up a lot)
This is great! I was planning to record my time more this week/month. Then, when visiting the site for the first time in a week or two, realized that you set up the challenge. Count me in! Just spent a half hour block filling in the gaps on the past two days so that I can start fresh tomorrow.
I was so sorry to have missed your talk at the NYPL. I had a work conflict (back-to-school night). I hope I can catch you the next time you are speaking in New York.
Congratulations on the showering milestone! My little one is just about the same age as yours, but there are no older siblings to keep an eye on him, so my “showering while child is awake” milestone is still some time away.