Planning Weeks

05/16/15

So, this magical thing has happened this week, in which my schedule seems to be incredibly consistent except for some small variance in the morning. This has the incredible value of being able to plan for actions in specific chunks of time without too much worry.

The schedule is basically thus:

Weekday:

• Misc (0300?-0310) (could start [hours] earlier)
• Take dogs for walk (0310-0330)
• Morning chores (0330-0410)
• Travel to work (0410-0430)
• Work (0430-0730)
• Exercise (0730-0800)
• Work (0800-1130)
• Super Smash Bros. Melee break (1130-1230)
• Work (1230-1530)
• Travel home (1530-1600)
• Cooking (1600-1700?) (ending time varies)
• Misc (1700?-1900) (starting time varies)
• Sleep (1900-0300?) (could end [hours] earlier)

Weekends (assumed pattern not yet observed)

• Misc (0300?-0310) (could start [hours] earlier)
• Take dogs for walk (0310-0330)
• Morning chores (0330-0430)
• Misc (0430-0520)
• Travel to work (0520-0550)
• Work (0550-0820)
• Travel home (0820-0850)
• Misc (0850-1600?) (ending time varies)
• Cooking (1600?-1700?) (starting, ending time varies)
• Misc (1700-1900) (starting time varies)
• Sleep (1900-0300?) (could end [hours] earlier)

You may be thinking, "That's a lot of hours to be working." And you're right, Stephan, but I'm okay putting these hours in for a variety of reasons. In all honesty, the weekend work wasn't originally a part of the plan, but I've come to find that going to work kickstarts my creative juices. It really is a part of my productive morning routine, and maybe if I want productive weekends, I should.

I don't think I have to actually clock in at work, but if I'm going I might as well put in a bit of time while I'm in the vicinity.

Anyways, that's tangential to the point at hand. See all those misc timeslots? Those could be anything.

Anything.

Also, I can do stuff during travel time, and that's really why I'm going to work during weekends. There's something about the bus ride productivity that really engages my mind for the day. Well, most days.

I think.

It's probably an integral part of my morning routine, at any rate.

But anyways, at work I've been using mornings to block out the work day with things I plan to do. I've made the incredibly valuable decision that if I distract myself with something, then a certain time-blocked task will have to be replanned another day (aka, I have to move on to whatever task is planned for the current time-block).

I believe it triggers the deadline motivation somewhere in the procrastinator part of my brain. My productivity is much more consistent.

Time-blocking my non-work time every morning, however, I tried and failed at. I believe I don't prioritize enough time to personal stuff on regular work days to devote a chunk of that small bit to planning the day.

On weekends, however, I have plenty of time to do just that. It is an interesting opposite, as I don't have the time to justify planning my work day (and as such I plan the weekends the Friday before). Basically, I think I should apply my weekday work strategy to my weekend personal time, and my weekend work strategy to my weekday personal time.

I think that this idea will work out pretty well. I think I have about one or two hours worth of personal productive time per weekday, and probably closer to 10 hours worth on weekends. For work, I have about 10 hours worth of time on weekdays, and am giving myself 2 hours worth on weekends. The mirror strategy is appropriate because of mirror time-commitments.

And as I plan my work weekends the Friday before, I shall plan my personal weekdays during the weekend.

Let's give this a try, Stephan!