Forking Mad
August 18th, 2024

My Typical Day

FiftyIn50

You might be surprised or shocked, but here goes.

I always rise at 6:15am.  I feel refreshed and energised for the day.  If I get up any later I am lethargic.  Firstly I go for a quick run – usually an hour, no more, sometimes less if the weather is a little poor.  Back home a shave, shower, teeth etc.

8am and I am powering through some overnight-oats, or muesli, and I check my schedule for the day.  No coffee.  I don’t drink coffee.  Water is enough.  8:30 and I check in with my assistant to make sure there are no curve-balls for the day ahead.   

I don’t generally go into the office – no need these days.  By 9am I’m in my garden room, which is a cabin at the end of the garden.  My sanctuary.  I try to be strict with my day’s interruptions.  I need time to work, not service queries.  I only take calls between 11am and 1pm.  I answer emails only for an hour in the morning.  I work on my job the rest of the time.  I skip lunch, but stop work at 6pm, having survived on water.   

Dinner will be at 7:30pm.  I devour the news after my meal.  Around 9pm I set aside an hour every day to work on my memoirs.  It’s important to keep them fresh.  In years to come I will edit them significantly, but I jot down my musings for the day.

10pm and I read some kind of trashy novel.  My escape.  11pm bed.  Tomorrow is another day.

Ok, if you are still with me, and don’t think I am a total dick, I applaud you.  None of the above is of course true.  However, if you listen to any of these life coach influencer twats, that’s what they promote.

Here’s my reality. 

Since I started working freelance, my days are generally quite varied.  Some days I don’t work. Others a little.  Many others a lot.

In summary, I am usually wide awake by 8am.  I lie in bed, read the news online and play Wordle and Connections. I generally rise by 9am.  Earlier if I have a morning meeting, but I do try to avoid scheduling 9am chats.  Really, who wants one first thing?  Let the world warm up and people read their emails.

As soon as I am up, I am straight in the shower.  I can’t function until I’ve had a wash. 

My shower-time is where my thoughts happen, and many of my best ideas.  After breakfast I try to deal with these.  It might just be emailing someone, or checking in on progress, or a brand new earth-shattering idea I just have to jot down!!

Breakfast is, 99% of the time, toast.  I love toast.

I then juggle client time, and me time throughout the day depending on my workload.  If I am engrossed in something I quite often forget to have lunch.  If I remember, it will be around 2pm.  If I forget, I am passing-out by 4pm and then I realise why.  I am terrible at remembering to keep my fluids up and quite often have not had a drink of anything since the night before.  I am getting better at keeping water at my desk, and will drink it if it is there. 

I stop between 5 and 6pm to play with the dog in the garden and generally try to spend some time outdoors.  My partner and I eat at 7:30pm or 8.  I might faff a little more with work if something is pressing.  If not, I work on my own projects, non-work related.  I am always bursting with ideas on so many things.  I usually write my blog articles in the evenings.  I don’t watch TV much, so it doesn’t feature in a typical day.

I tend to go to bed around midnight.  Very rarely is it earlier.  I used to say to myself, “don’t go to bed the same day you get up”.  It’s kind of stuck and I seem to find myself busy until midnight.

So there you are – my non-glamorous, real, typical day

There are 66 reference to the pronoun "I" in that article.  I've never talked so much about me in a post!!

#35/50 in the FiftyIn50 blogging challenge.