Quest for Quiescence

You’ve heard me talk about not having enough time before. Today I’d like to dig a little deeper into the thoughts I have on the subject and share what a typical day looks like for me these days. I’ve realized that there are more things that I want to do with my time than there are hours in the day. I believe that it’s important to set priorities and make sure that you allocate time to those priorities. This is the only way to ensure you make the most of the time you’re given.

This is really an exercise for myself to identify my priorities and ensure that I’m satisfying them, or at least working towards satisfying them. If I find something is out of balance, I may need to make some changes.

My Basic Priorities

1. Provide for my family
2. Spend time bonding/interacting with my kids
3. Spend quality time with my wife
4. Participate in hobbies and activities that I enjoy

My Typical Day

• 7:00 – 7:30 Wake up, shower, grab a bite to eat and get ready for work
• 7:30 – 8:00 Wake the kids up (if they haven’t woken up on their own yet) get them dressed, feed them something and get us all out the door by around 8:00.
• 8:00 – 8:30 Drop the kids off at day care and drive to work
• 8:30 – 5:30 The bulk of the day is spent at my day job. I usually eat lunch at my desk and work about half of my lunch hour while checking personal email or reading blogs for the other half.
• 5:30 – 6:00 I usually leave the office between 5:30 and 5:45 which puts me home right around 6:00 most days.
• 6:00 – 6:15 Fortunately my wife gets off work earlier than I do and picks up the kids from daycare. She also usually has supper waiting for me by the time I get home. This is really helpful, unfortunately the kids can’t wait so late to eat so I usually end up eating by myself when I get home.
• 6:15 – 7:30 After I finish eating I cram in as much fun time with the kids as I can. This is tough because we also have to squeeze in a bath during this time.
• 7:30 – 8:00 My wife and I each take a kid and get their teeth brushed, read stories and put them down for bed.
• 8:00 – 8:30 I try to help my wife out during this time with some light housekeeping duties. This usually consists of cleaning up after the kids and maybe taking out the garbage.
• 8:30 – 9:30 My wife and I spend about an hour together each night. Usually just unwinding and watching a TV show.
• 9:30 – 12:30 At 9:30 my wife usually goes to bed. This is the time for me to focus on this blog and all of my alternative income efforts. I usually call it a night by around 12:30. These days, the computer I work at lives in our bedroom (the old office is now my daughters bedroom) so I end up working in the dark to avoid disturbing my wife’s sleep. I can’t wait until our basement is finished so I can have a proper space for conducting business.

How Does This Relate to Priorities

The first three of my basic priorities, are being satisfied with the schedule listed above although I’m not spending as much time with my family as I would like.  The fourth priority is even being covered to some extent in the evenings after 9:30.

It’s a little depressing that of the 17.5 hours I spend awake, 10 hours (from the time I leave the house til the time I return home) are spent at the office. The good news, is at least this is in alignment with my priorities. In contrast I only have just over an hour and a half with my kids per day (the mornings rushing out the door don’t count) and an hour with my wife. The three hours at the end of the day is an effort to create alternative income streams that I hope can someday eliminate my dependence on the day job. The idea is that this can free up time to spend with my family and maybe even take up some hobbies for myself.

About My 3 hours in the Evenings

I’m a little disappointed with the amount of progress I’ve been able to make with my three hours per night during the last couple weeks. I usually complete my blog posts by somewhere between 10 and 11 o’clock. By this time I’m pretty tired, and lately I’ve been convincing myself that the last hours or two of my day is best spent conducting research by reading blogs and forums.

I’m going to have to come up with a way to be a little more productive with this time. As I’ve mentioned before, the way to accomplish goals is through regular and consistent progress over a period of time. I can’t afford to let things stall at this point.

As I write this, it’s quarter past 11 pm. I’m going to spend the next hour or so taking action on my ShoeMoney Extreme course. Consistent progress…

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