How I spend my days... in theory

People occasionally ask me how I spend my days. So I thought I would try to keep track for a while, and also include some deliberate structure to the week. At least, as default, for days when nothing else crops up. It's too easy to get caught up in following links online, or doing puzzles, or answering questions on forums when there's no specific plan. That's fine in holiday periods, and is mostly what happened in the 'week between the years', when Christmas Day was over, and the New Year had not yet begun.

The earlier parts of my mornings are usually fairly similar. First thing in the morning (which can start any time from 5.00am to 6.30 or so) I do a few online games (Wordle, Connections and Strands) on my phone to help me wake up, and check the headlines on a couple of news sites. Sometimes I do some knitting (I make baby hats for refugees and asylum seekers). Sometimes I work on Duolingo, the language-learning app which I have on my phone. I might do just five minutes, I might do half an hour. Sometimes I read. 

Three days a week I walk five kilometres or so with my friend Sheila, leaving the house around 6.15am, then we sit outside and chat for a while. Three days a week I leave the house a bit later and go for a short walk around the neighbourhood, ending up at the fruit shop (and sometimes the mini-market oppposite) where I do most of the grocery shopping. On Sundays I just go for a walk, for a couple of kilometres.

However the day starts, I'm usually in the kitchen (with groceries unpacked and away if relevant) by around 8.00am. I squeeze oranges and put nuts in a little ramekin dish, and heat up coffee, and take Richard a tray of breakfast to eat on our balcony. Then I have my own breakfast in the dining room (neither of us is sociable at breakfast time). Afterwards I sit in my study and drink coffee while reading, or doing Duolingo if I didn't get time earlier. 

Around 9.00am Monday to Friday the Roomba starts up, and I go upstairs. We spend anything from ten minutes to an hour chatting, talking about the day, discussing issues, or just hanging out. It's too easy to let time go by without connecting intellectually, so we try to ensure that we have at least this time together, without any distractions. On a typical day I then get in the shower about 9.45, when the solar panels have heated the water sufficiently, and Richard starts whatever work he's doing. Sometimes it's a bit later.

After showering, I potter somewhat - maybe putting on laundry (usually three times a week) and putting away the previous load if it's still hanging up on the utility balcony. If we ran the dishwasher the night before, I'll empty it. If the kitchen floor needs mopping, I'll do that. If I haven't done at least fifteen minutes of knitting, I'll make sure I do that. And I read the 'verse of the day' on my Bible app, and a few chapters of whatever 'plan' I'm currently following.

By then it's usually around 10.30-11.00. I have to have some idea of what I'm going to do, or the time will fritter away.

So, I decided to allocate a couple of hours on Monday mornings to working on my sites or other blogs, except on Mondays when there's a writing group meeting. On Thursday mornings I plan to deal with photos. I have got very behind on making photobooks and organising my digital photos, and thought it would be a good idea to allocate at least one morning per week to working on them. On Tuesday mornings my friend Sheila with one, two or three of her daughters comes over to play board games and hang out. On Fridays Richard and I do any shopping that's needed by car, and I allocate other Fridays to keeping track of our spending and printing statements, etc, as well as paying (online) any bills. 

As for Wednesdays, I thought I'd try to do something slightly different each week, not computer related. Once a month the local Anglican church has a book sale, for instance, on a Wednesday. I like to walk to the thrift store about once a month, too, to browse their interesting selection. I might walk into the town, if it's not too warm, or I might do a bit of baking.

On Saturdays I sometimes prepare a curry to go in the slow cooker in the morning, and I do the weekly cleaning. I change the sheet and pillowcases on the bed, dust surfaces that need it, clean the kitchen countertops, and run the roomba upstairs. I clean the bathrooms thoroughly, too, and sweep the stairs. If I'm feeling energetic and it's not too hot, I can get everything done in around an hour, but usually I take it more slowly, and that takes up most of the rest of the morning.

On Sundays I aim to go to the Anglican church service twice a month, although I don't go in the hottest months, and sometimes events conspire to stop me going anyway. On the other two Sunday mornings each month I am in the kitchen, preparing soup and a dessert for the evening which we spend with friends. 

All of which takes us to lunch-time. Six days per week we eat cold food: bread, salads, leftovers, cheese (dairy-free, mostly), humus, peanut butter etc or, on chilly days, soup. On Sundays, left over from the traditions of our childhoods, we have a cooked lunch which usually includes roast potatoes. 

By two o'clock I've had my coffee and cleared away, and hung out laundry if relevant. I'm ready to sit down for a break with more online puzzles, helping on a forum, checking email and Facebook etc. In theory I stop this about 2.30, but I know it's easy to get distracted; more realistically, it goes on to nearer 3pm. After that, for a couple of hours in the afternoons my plan is to write: reviews of books I've finished reading, or DVDs we've seen, or perhaps do some short-story writing or blogging. By 5pm I'm usually read to start food preparation.

We eat around 6.00pm, maybe a bit later, and afterwards I clean up, and do my evening Duolingo session (around ten to fifteen minutes, usually). 

At 7.30 or so we stop using the computers; three evenings we go out for a short walk, followed by either a couple of episodes in a DVD series, or a two-player board game. 

One evening a week we watch a film on DVD. On Thursday evenings, Sheila comes to play a game.  Every other Sunday she and her family are here for games/DVDs in the afternoon and a shared evening meal, and they stay until 8pm or later, after which I do Duolingo and read. On Saturday evenings either she comes for a board game, or we watch some Doctor Who. 

And some time between 9pm and 10pm I start getting ready for bed...