A workaholic timetable, that you’re gonna love!
Who doesn’t like a perfect work-life balance? I drafted a day-to-day timetable & it’s tilting towards “workaholic”, but there’s family-time dedicated, so I’d call it “a balanced one”. Well! it is easy to plan one -on paper, the ideal plan; but difficult to implement it EVERYDAY, day-after-day, repetitively (until it becomes a habit). But it’s a first step, right? Without planning how are you going to implement?
Note: Why am I posting & sharing it here?: I’ve been following this routine for last few weeks successfully, I believe it’s attainable that’s what makes it ‘shareable’. My timetable may not be of interest to you; as your job, working hours, locality, needs, lifestyle, and age/family are different than mine but the template can inspire you to have your own version.
First off, a little bit of background about me, (since it’s one of the first blogs here). Me, wife & son live in a tiny village near Mumbai, in India. I’m a late 30s, self-employed, married guy with 7 years old son. I do have a home-office setup but I prefer to go out to a rented office space for work, which is 15 kms away from home. My parents live in neighbouring village, 3 kms away from home, which is on route to office. My work never gets monotonous as I have involved myself in lot of things (not restricting to computer-screen job. more on that later…).
So, here’s my typical day should be divided:
Waking up (7am): These days I get up at around 8. So, there’s some effort to make it at 7. I don’t use alarms, still wake up just on time as per the schedule. I set up alarm very rarely, only for before 5am times, when there’s a train to catch or early travel for some important events. I believe if you instruct your mind to get up at certain time, you’ll be up next day at the right time. Try this, it works! (for me).
Getting ready (7:00–9:00): My morning routine is- getting up, Vajrasana for a minute or two, drinking water, taking a dump (with a smartphone, I confess). So far so good, but I can improve this. I can add some pull-ups, push-ups, jogging, dumbbells & of course some yoga & meditation etc.
I don’t gym nor meditate, & I’m not proud of this; I need to change this habit. I don’t call myself unfit, but I don’t work-out often. I can go for a hike and wont even sweat. But gyming needs dedication which I never did. I am going to spend at least 15 mins each day in physical training exercise.
As for meditation- I haven’t meditated since ages. Although, I had successfully finished quite intense meditation courses in my 20s. So, I know the theory and practice! Just need to brush up and do it regularly.
Get up, Dress up, Show up (without pants! 09:00–11:00): My friends were jealous of me working-from-home as it saves my 2 hours of commuting. That’s not the case anymore, I go to office 15 kms from home -by road it’s at least 30 mins away. But, it’s a good compromise for a dedicated space for work with no distraction from house chores and family. My home-office space is still very much functional and upkept, as I try to get some work done before and after office hours. I can use this time in sending quick emails, fixing appointments for the day etc. I can improve this slot (9–10am) with planning for a day, follow-up email/calls etc. Or may be should spend time with family, morning playtime with son. Mostly, I pay visit to parents on my way to office but, I can go bit early and manage their work there… let’s see how it turns out.
Office Time (11:00–20:30): Mostly in-front of a computer screen.
Lunch, Siesta & snacks: Siesta is important, well you can be in denial and resume the work immediately. Or you can run this experiment yourself. Take a 15 mins powernap
and you’ll be refreshed and ready to work with improved focus. In office, we have water dispenser with hot & cold tabs & instant tea sachets
Personally for me, on a typical day (of procrastinating every work) I find my peak in the evening around 17:30 (engineer’s 11th hour slog. yeah!) & same time wifey calls, “घरी कधी येतोयेस?” — when are you coming home? There’s no pressure but there’s some guilt “कधी ही ये”. 🙂
Although it’s late to leave office at 20:00 I prefer not to break my momentum in the evening and tackle some tough nuts.
AfterHours: It’s should be all about family.
Home is the place where all work stress vanishes. Nothing beats the feeling, seeing your loved ones waiting in home for you in late evening.
In the morning, wifey is all busy in kitchen and house chores, but in late evening we can spend some time together, although I mix it with some PC time or binge watching on mobile. I had started telling Ramayana story on bedtime last year. My 7 year son, just loves when it’s a story telling time. But the guilty is that I’m not doing it regularly. I can surely improve here, with consistently doing it everyday. Instead of telling stories randomly, I’ll narrate it from the storybooks. So, I’ll have some material for everyday. If you have any recommendations please suggest in the comments. Anything to stop mobile screen addiction, right?
Once he’s asleep, (22:00- 23:30) I get up for some more PC time (it’s a workaholic version, I told you!). I get up as guilt of unfinished business haunts me. I do some random work & It’s not maintained but I think I should devote this time to my special projects. Projects that are in development/inception stage, that requires ideation and experimentation and some research. This is a quite time, as everybody else is asleep from 10pm to however I can stretch…
To sum it up: I split my work in 5 sessions.
- pre-office (1.5 hrs)
- office, pre-lunch (2.5 hrs)
- office, post-siesta (2 hrs)
- office peak hours evening (2.5 hrs)
- afterhours (1.5 hrs)
On paper this plan looks realistic, although bit ambitious, I think it’s attainable (Update: yeah it is). & If I can do it regularly for couple of weeks, it’ll turn into a habit (Update: not became a habit yet).
Doing it regularly and consistently is the key here. I know, I’m going to win, I’ll report my daily-routine with success-failure update after 1 month. Stay tuned. I know you’re not interested and why you should be? Whether I achieve or fail, it doesn’t matter to you. Then what is it for you? You can prepare your own version, share the session splits here, or comment your experience and struggle to maintain a regular timetable.
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