I said in my last post that I was going to do another iteration of my time management. As I mentioned, my efficiency has been somewhat impaired by having a broken toe, but after the first few days it wasn't as bad as I had feared. So, I did in fact record another sample day. It isn't as typical a day as it ought to have been, because it was actually the second of January, and I was still recovering from my extremely late night on NYE. Anyway, as I'd been trying for days to remember to record my day, I couldn't bear to waste the one time I actually did remember, so I'm going to analyse that (just like Robert DeNiro, only without the being so handsome and talented).
0600: Shout at the alarm and try to go back to sleep. I usually wake up feeling great, but this morning I have a headache. I am still jet lagged from New Year, after staying up to stupid o'clock and then sleeping in until another stupid o'clock. Don't judge me unless you went to bed early and sober on NYE.
0615: Drag myself out of bed, make coffee and let Chips out.
 |
| Chips. |
0645: Check on Chips. He is lying down in the little enclosed area we made to protect my mother's grave, eating the leg of a calf. Heaven knows where he got it; he must have been off property without permission. I check on the leg and note with great relief that it had been dead for some time. Have shower and get dressed. More coffee.
0730:
Put last night's washing in the dryer and put on another load. Clean up the
laundry.
0745
Take Chips into town to do training.
0815:
Breakfast (fruit salad). Wash up.
0830:
Check the dryer but alas, it is all still damp. Do some German on Duolingo.
0900:
do physiotherapy exercises. Take a break to read some of a really fun book that
I have for advance review.
0930: Do more physio and take pills. Mess about with the tracking device I have for
Chips, which I have just found after he took off his collar in the middle of
the back paddock almost a year ago. The control unit is not charged. Leave it
on the charger; it had been on all night and is at 4%. Stronly suspect this
whole system is a useless POS, but as Chips doesn't go walkabout any more, it's not a big problem. My own instinct is to throw the lot in the trash, but it was a birthday gift from my husband, so I feel I have to do my best to get it working.
0945: Water
flowers and fill up the bird bath and dog water. Fold and put away the washing
from the tumble dryer.
1000:
Start work. This is the first edit of a book I finished last October. I already
have a great stack of notes for revision. Set it all up, pause to make the bed
while I nerve myself to the task, and start reading my printed ms.
 |
| This is the mockup of the cover design for the book I'm working on. It's about a dragon. I still need a really catchy title, so if you think of one, message me immediately! I will give you a free book. |
1100: Take a break for some more housework. Clean husband's study and the chapel, and
continue with the mending, which like the poor is always with us.
1200
The sewing is too hard on my hands to do for more than half an hour. Waste an
hour on socical media waiting for lunch.
1300
Lunch. Tuna Mornay.
1330
Back to work.
1400 Take a break to wash up the lunch things, and resume work. I have made revision notes up to the
end of chapter 5. That's 5 of 35, so the whole thing should take a week. Curse bitterly, because I had planned 4 days for it. Feel discouraged and take a break to do
some more German on Duolingo.
1510
Go to Furpile. It is a sad little furpile with only me and the dogs; I miss our
cats, who both died last year. But I have the comfort of dogs around me. And
it's a very good comfort, and soothed by it, I fall asleep.
1630
Wake up parched and get a cool drink. Think about going on with the mending,
but I know that abusing my damaged tendons will not lead anywhere good, so
return to work.
1700
Take a few minutes to wash my coffee things. Return to work.
1800
With eight chapters done I feel better about the day. Call it quits for now and
pick up my book. I'm reading Spectres and Stockings by Kevin Hess. For those
who haven't encountered these books, The Trials of Bardly Whitsend series, they
are a real hoot. They are much in the style of the late great Sir Terry, and they're
really a lot of fun. If you enjoyed the Discworld series (and let's face it, if you don't like those, your soul is dead), then you really should check this series out. You can find it here:
1815
Realise with horror that it is Drinkies Time, and prise my husband away from the
television to make my Rum and Dare. A drink just doesn't taste the same if I make it myself. We sit out on the verandah to enjoy the
last of the day while the kids rush about in the orchard.
 |
| Our children at play. |
2000 Go over to the kitchen to feed the dogs and then ourselves.
2045
back to my desk for a quick check of emails and messages.
2100
go to bed to read, but despite really enoying the book, I am getting back into my normal routine, and I can't stay awake for more than 10 minutes.
Analysis
When I look back over the day, I can see with pleasure that I got a lot of work done. However, I was still working, on and off, three hours after I was supposed to have finished for the day. This was to make up for the fact that I used a lot of my morning session for doing household tasks instead of actually working. That's really something to watch, and with a four hour working day, those four hours need to be strictly kept for work. That will be my next effort.
That said, however, I finished the book edit yesterday, having taken only six days for it. The four days I'd planned was optimistic anyway, as the state of my first draft is extremely rough, due I think to the number of times I have picked it up and dropped it since starting it in a blaze of enthusiasm early in 2021, I'm pretty happy with six days for the first edit.
