Want a Better Work Week?

For September, I plotted my calendar in a way that would remind me to take myself seriously. 

After a day of work, I give myself almost 2 hours from doing anything and have 8 pm to 11 pm blocked out on my calendar to do things that should matter more to me than my 9 to 5. 

I do not hate the 9 to 5 grind. I hate the losing myself in the demands of work and daily chores that the 9 to 5 offers on a silver platter.

With a new kitten in the mix, so many plans have to fit within a week. And  I have not allotted my time to get everything done. 

I always thought it was a matter of time management. Then it became a matter of understanding my energy levels and what my body needs. Both are true in retrospect. But right now, I am at a point in my life where I need to account for each minute of a day and how that plays around with the different days of the week.

So here is how September kind of went:

1. Understanding the Focus Time on my Phone or Getting an App to Help

I have been feeling overworked lately. I spend too much time on my job. Or I think I do.

I lose track of matters that I care about. Push aside my responsibilities and forget to enjoy breaks from the screen and the demands of work. 

With that, I decided to find a way to keep track of how many hours I worked for a day.

Research shows that a person in an office can only deep focus for about 3 to 5 hours (check this article by the Seattle Times and this article by Wired). The remaining 4 to 5 hours are spent lounging, completing menial tasks, and engaging in office gossip. It’s just the human capacity. 

I wanted to know how much time I have been slaving away for an employer. How much time is set aside for writing, and how much time do I take on breaks and other matters more important than my job (like walking and spending time with the pets). With that, I wanted to look for an app to record it all. 

To make working more fun, I found Focus Plant where you get to grow a garden with the time you recorded for focusing on work.

After almost a month on the app, I have 41 growing plants! Sadly, I lost momentum since it takes so much focus time to plant a new one as you level up. 

Even so, tracking the time I use for everything that has to get done gave me valuable data. 

I  learned how much time I have in the morning before I walk the dog and get lunch. I learned how much time I work after lunch and before I have to go out for ballet class. It helped me figure out how much time in a week is spent reading,  writing, and discovering things versus the time spent on work emails. 

The app is a way to gauge if you are overworking yourself to the bone. So far, I am not. Thankfully. All the stress I feel is self-imposed. I should take it easy.  There are 1,440 minutes in the day anyway.

2. Blocking out my calendar 

With everything that needs to be done, I feel overwhelmed and stuck. Instead of ticking things off the To-do List, I end up procrastinating until it is too late. 

Visually plotting my day has helped a lot. Each night or early the next morning, I list all the things that need to get done on that day or the following day.  It has helped me keep track of matters I would have missed with the mess of a full workday.

A step up from that is blocking out the specific times on my calendar to remind me that these hours are dedicated to this or that matter.

Having these general blocks in the day for work, lunch, working out, writing, and reading has helped me have a better structured day. Although the day is not broken down to the minute, they are general blocks for a whole week that have helped me have a better perspective.

Once I get used to it, I may break it down to each hour (when possible). But too much structure may suffocate me. 

By blocking out my day, I get daily reminders to start writing, learning, or getting creative. I wish I had more time in the day to get each one done without compromising sleep, the quality of my work, and maintaining social relationships—which may eventually find itself on my calendar, too, but something that might kill the joy of them. 

3. Preparing in Advance for Matters 

I know people plan things to a T to help them get more done. I, on the other hand, go with the feeling and mood. There are days when things don’t seem to work, and plans feel rigid. While there are days when I can keep going until 1 in the morning and wake up feeling I had a full night’s sleep.

As a kid growing up, winging things felt like the best and only way to go since nothing else relied on you, and the burden of their consequences felt small, compared to the wide world you live in as an adult. 

Winging it is still fun but scarier now. Consequences are heavier as we handle life with adult decisions, responsibilities, and with those relying on you are on the wings.

I cannot let a day freely play out with everything beyond me, like taking my dog out, feeding the pets, and doing other chores. Aside from that, I do not just sit pretty and answer a few emails at work, but I also have project work, and reports that sometimes pile up—leaving me overwhelmed.

Planning and preparing these tasks in advance takes the weight of the stress away and helps me be on top of my projects. The same goes for the bigger things I was hoping for.

Previously, I left personal goals and projects for the tide to bring in. So working on them was only when the stars aligned and the moon was full. I have learned that there will be days when the tide will never come. You have to approach the water. 

Figuring out how a day or a week should go has helped me complete tasks earlier and helped me dedicate my time.

4. Understanding How to Juggle It All!

No one really knows how to juggle it all! We learn along the way as we run through all the different hurdles in life. 

We all pretend we have it all figured out. No one does. 

When you find yourself in a rhythm, things begin falling into place as planned or hoped for, a curveball gets thrown too high, or a totally new one is thrown into the mix. And you find yourself scrambling to get back on track. 

You have to start from scratch to figure it all out. 

Having a visual aid of what the day is supposed to look like and how a week is supposed to be may help you understand everything that needs to be juggled along the way and help you grasp the time to do so. These tips may help, but it is not foolproof. They are not going to ease the responsibilities and demands only help you gain perspective. 

5. Prospects for More

Since I have begun plotting my day out, thinking once again in advance about projects or work, and learning to value each minute, I hope to find the time to get more things done. 

I am trying to read more—so I can get out of my reading slump. I want to write more, travel more, get more work done, and create more. 

I am standing on a balance beam, teetering on the prospect of further education and pursuing this while juggling a plate that feels a little full and, at the same time, feels too empty.

There is so much more to life, and I know we were made for more than the “eat, sleep, work repeat”. A heartbeat is stronger than we can imagine. 

A day spent chasing work deadlines alone feels like a day wasted day. So let’s not waste it.