Daily scheduling

Saturday:

I would have loved to sleep in this morning but Aiden came in for a cuddle at about 7.15 and once I was awake the nose-faucet got going. I decided being upright was the better option so I took my constant nose-blowing away, letting Tim sleep, and spent an hour writing a detailed daily schedule for myself. It incorporates a lot of exercise, planned times for editing work and housework, and a lot less computer time during the daytime.

I'll join the gym this week and then as soon as I am well I will start group classes and also running on the treadmill while the kids are at their Gecko classes (assuming they like it) and also while they are at gymnastics on Saturday mornings. Theoretically this would give me 5 one-hour classes plus 4 half-hour running sessions. I do not expect to actually achieve this level of exercise -- I am not aiming for that. But various interruptions happen unexpectedly on different days of the week so I am scheduling in a lot of extra exercise to allow for that. For instance this week I am sick today and have a meeting on Tuesday, cutting out 3 sessions already. My goal is 3 one-hour classes and 3 half-hour runs. I have downloaded a c25K app for my runs and will try that as a guide. I also walk the kids to and from school, giving me about 35 minutes of gentle exercise most days. Friday and Sunday are days off from exercise, but Sunday should include being active with the family.

I have always been pretty slack with housework, and having kids to clean up after and then returning to paid work have not improved the appearance of my house. So I am instituting a "room of the day" which I will draw out of a hat each weekday and do 15 mins there. Every room should get some attention each fortnight -- for a neglected room this might be a quick tidy and vaccuum, for a less-neglected room I could do something more advanced like clean out a cupboard. I also plan to be more vigilant with things like tidying the kitchen straight after a meal and folding each basket of clean clothes as they are ready rather than ending with a whole week's worth to do on the weekend. My idea is to avoid the marathon cleaning sessions, but instead do a little bit several times a day.

In regard to my paid work, because I freelance I sometimes have days or weeks with no work. But this will no longer mean extra time playing computer games! If I am not working in those timeslots I will be writing. My novel and some short stories.

See, I am about to become the perfect human being!

But seriously, I used to be a very hard-working and organised person. I seem to have slumped. A lot. My new schedule is not intended to make my life horrible, it is to make my life easier. I have reminders on each page for things like my children's news days or having to take their violin to school. I want to be slender and fit and healthy and live in a reasonably clean house and excell at my work and write a novel. I am giving myself tools to make this happen. The schedule is a sturdy framework, not a prison.