Schedules and Routines

[ewt]

On an ideal day, what would you get done? Include self-care activities (like hygiene and eating) and self-support activities (like working if applicable). Try to be realistic about what can actually happen in the course of a day. What would you need to do each day to never get behind in chores, to feel fulfilled and happy, and to maintain your relationships to your satisfaction?

On an average day, what do you get done? Include self-care and life-support activities as above.

On an emergency, oh-shit-everything-has-gone-wrong day, what are the essential things that you make sure you do? What is your bare-bones routine that you go out of your way to protect? What things from your above routines are "skippable" and for how long? Do you adapt by eating ready meals or by going in late to work? Do you skimp on sleep or shuffle chores to another day?

Details, details, details, please, if you will.

Comments

[karen2205]

OK, an average day is the easiest to start with:

Get up, eat breakfast, listen to Radio 4/read email/LiveJournal, get dressed, go to work, do work, eat lunch (on good days I'll have brought lunch with me, on less good days I go out to buy lunch) [try to avoid it getting later than 3pm before doing this], do more work, come home, eat dinner [variable amounts of cooking depending on tiredness], read email/LJ/watch telly/listen to Radio 4, go to bed by midnight or so, sleep.

On organised days I do things like setting the washing machine on a timer to do washing ready for me to empty when I get home, empty the bins as I leave to go to work, have lists of jobs to be done at lunch time that involve leaving the building [some days I don't get to leave the building 'cos I'm too busy]

On everything's-a-mess-days (normally caused 'cos I've not got enough sleep, 'cos I couldn't get to sleep or 'cos I'm feeling coldified but not ill enough to take a day off work or 'cos there's just too much work to be done at work) I make sure I get enough food [sometimes there isn't good breakfast food at home and I nibble during the morning at work], leave work early [this means 5-5.30pm], eat comfort food, watch comfort telly/DVDs, go to bed early, take appropriate medication if feeling ill.

I currently have a huge pile of dishes it'll take me 20mins or so to do when I actually decide to do them. If I had other people in the house I wouldn't allow myself to accumulate that size a pile of dishes. I have boxes I need to throw out, some other bits and pieces that need sorting. I really must do some vacuuming and some sorting out of my underwear drawers and some dusting (which I hate). The bathroom needs cleaning too. Oh and now I've got my new shelving in place I could do with sorting out my books and spreading them across the shelves. I keep thinking about an inventory system for books [I remember contemplating designing one when I was 9 or so, but didn't get very far] All of this stuff can wait till the weekend, and this is my usual strategy with non-urgent stuff when I'm overwhelmed with things I have to do - it can wait till the weekend, when I'll have enough time to catch up on missed sleep and do the various things that need to be done.

Time for *reading* email/LJ/other bits of the internet is really important. Time for replying to other people and getting some social contact by doing so is important, but less important in the short term than reading time. In the longer term, lack of time/ability to interact with people leaves me feeling lonely.