On Tuesdays and Thursdays I work for myself!
(Unless it’s a call week — 6 per year — or vacation!)
I usually try to be pretty specific with my goals for the day since there’s usually a decent amount of unstructured time, but I don’t usually time block plan (give every minute a job).
The day’s to-do list (post . . . doing stuff):
4:30 Up, coffee with collagen / water / vitamins / grahams again + journal from the night before (experience + 5 year), plan day, read ~10 pages of Covenant of Water
5:10: Headspace + head out for run
(and probably many more on Reddit etc . . . ew)
Today’s run is 9 miles @ 9:33/mi average — a solo run with podcasts. I listen to an episode of This is So Awkward featuring Ellen Galinsky — interesting! I also finish up the We Can Do Hard Things ADHD ep and then followed it up with a little Tortured Poet’s Department TS. I end on the song “Florida!!!” which was then in my head all day.
7:03 Home! Help Josh with kids, chat with everyone, eat breakfast (cottage cheese / granola / blueberries / bit of maple syrup).
8:00 Kids + Josh leave. I shower and then tidy up house a bit (load + start dishwasher). I do my ~5 min makeup routine as usual.
8:40 Sit down to work wearing the above lazy ensemble (those are Vuori joggers not scrub pants though they look similar!). I write yesterday’s D-I-T-L post which takes much longer than usual (all the pictures slow me down)
9:35 “Tech Check” for a corporate presentation I have coming up next week, I meet the hosts + log into Teams and make sure everything plays nicely with my mac (it did).
9:50 Finish post and hit publish; write a Patreon post
10:15 Pay taxes (state sales tax for BLP Live + our nanny’s state employment tax), prep for upcoming interview, review Planning By Season check-in slides
11:30 Eat lunch and read a few pages of Covenant and then switch to blogs
11:55 Launch and host Planning By Season’s spring check-in!! Fun discussion and some deep dives into people’s lingering projects.
1:00 Decompress, review interview questions . .
And somewhere in there I get a text notifying us that our water is safe to drink again. YAY!
1:30 Interview Ellen Galinsky for future ep of BOBW (hence my podcast choice earlier!). She was awesome. So much experience.
2:15 Upload episodes and kind of decompress again, I think I texted some friends and just chilled out. I also did Duolingo.
3:00 Write and record ep of BLP for 2 Mondays from now
4:00 Kids are home (MM picked them up) but I want to finish some stuff, so I hide in my “recording studio” my closet. I answer some emails and plan the coming week.
5:10 I decide that I’m done! I check in with the kids and then eat with G & A again while MM takes C to soccer. We have chicken/broccoli/rice with an orange/soy sauce that was adapted from PrepDish (pretty sure MM made this on Monday). Josh arrives home amazingly early (5:30) and meets C at the soccer field. He (Josh) goes for his run while soccer practices finishes up and MM heads home from the soccer field (it’s on her way). I clean up from dinner and set up tomorrow’s coffee. I eat two TJ’s mini peanut butter cups, AS ONE DOES.
6:10 G wants to take a walk, so we do. A comes for one lap and then goes inside to do homework.
6:45 Drive A to dance studio (G comes too) for jazz class. Drop her off
7:10 Arrive back home (we live super close to dance + gymnastics thankfully!). Piano with G (~5 minutes again). She draws for a bit while I upload the pix in this post knowing I’ll have less time tomorrow!
7:40 Start G’s bedtime routine. Meanwhile Josh and C pick up A at 8 pm (coming directly from soccer). (This is not always feasible depending on call schedules etc so I am very happy when it works!!!). Read more of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer. J/C eat a late dinner when they get back.
8:20 Leave G’s room and chat with A/C/J.
9:00 Tell kids I am done parenting and they go to bed (fairly minimal protest from one of them, but thankfully short-lived). I do skincare, read, hang out with Josh.
9:40 sleep
Pages Read: ~50 of Covenant, I AM ALMOST DONE!
Screen Time Minutes: 131 (this is more normal) – no Reddit or scrolling (whew) but some texting, WhatsApp, transferring photos for the post, Duolingo, etc.
Sleep: ~7 hours (maybe just under) which is basically the bare minimum for me but I feel okay today!
10 Comments
Okay – my question: HOW DO YOU ONLY EAT TWO mini peanut butter cups. You must have self-discipline muscles of steel!
Loved this recap again. I find DITL posts so…soothing?…to read! Can’t wait for the next one.
I guess because I have them almost every day so I know there are more coming 😅. Yeah I am definitely a dietary moderator not an abstainer.
I enjoy these DITL posts too! Your day is full but I like how you include some decompression time in there to read blogs, text friends, etc. And get a mix of work and also home tasks done. Oh and lovely to do a walk with G!
love decompression times, walk with A, and when done parenting 🙂
Yes, I’ve been admiring how you’re a dietary moderator- I wish I could be like that! I’m forced to be an abstainer.
I like how you, your husband and the nanny seem to have a smooth system for the kids’ activities- I’m sure you’re laughing right now and saying “It’s not always like that!” I have a friend with three kids who all do different sports, and she said “I feel like we need a third parent.” I’m going to tell her she needs a nanny!
ALSO…. what I’m noticing from these posts is the lack of dinner angst. I think if I really tried, I could have that as well. I could prep things on Sunday and have a much less stressful week. Hmmm.
Well, can’t take much credit for the dinner part because MM does the prep on Monday, not me! I do the planning and shopping and usually cook Sunday.
How do you eat so little and run so much? Are you super light? I would die, especially not eating between 530 and bed … do think you’ve trained your circadian rhythms?!
I genuinely think I eat double what you eat and run less.. hmmm … maybe I’d be faster if I ate less?
Gotta stop reading your some blog! I’m at work ha ha
I’m only 5’1 so yes energy needs probably lower than some. I haven’t gained or lost weight this training cycle and my energy is good and periods regular so I think I’m doing decently on the fueling side!
I learned about collagen from a Run for the Sole podcast where Meghann Featherstun cited several studies on athletes and possibly injury prevention. I figure if nothing else, it’s 10g protein. And best case maybe it might help protect tendons / soft tissues. I did not look at the primary sources myself.
As for not eating at night I’m honestly just not hungry at night most nights! On rare occasion I’ll be hungry and eat some cereal right before bed. But not commonly. Mid afternoons however I usually need some kind of snack or I will be very hangry by dinner.
I am somewhere between 5 8 and … so that makes sense. I think I’m just a hungry person too! I hate that about myself.
Do you think you’ve seen benefits I. Hair and nails etc as well as your target outcome of reducing injury? I may give it a try as I’m always short of protein.
I chemically straighten my hair (Japanese straightening) and unfortunately periodically bite my nails (hate this!) so hard to tell!!