I’ve had a few different routines over the last few months, but this one seems to have nailed it. I’m done tweaking it now and at least for the next few months, I think I can live with this. Hope this inspires someone.
At the start of the year, I decided what was important to me (aside from my family) and was determined to focus on them. I picked 3 things: Work, wellness and speaking Spanish. As the months have gone by, I have extended those to include playing the saxophone and worked that into my routine. A little practice everyday goes a long long way.
By the way, the (F) means it’s a ‘fast’ day – where I do a limited fast – typically only having two meals and not exceeding 600 kcals for the entire day. It’s working quite well. I feel healthier and less bloaty (though the reduction in bread is probably helping with that).
Also ‘lunch’ is generally spent hanging out with my sons when they get back from school.
Stand and Deliver
One of my prized possessions is my sit/stand desk. I stand most of the day – typically more than I sit. I have definitely found this much more comfortable over the course of the day compared to sitting. I have a greater range of movements too and experienced a lot less back pain that I used to have. Although I have no data to back this up, I think standing has helped me be more productive.
Time for Work
Typically I end up doing about 36 hours of work a week – and it turns out to be really productive because I have made time for the things I also want to do more of. So I’m really at work for those hours. My focus has always been working smarter not necessary longer hours. One of the benefits of working from Spain (but not in Spain) is that I’m an hour ahead of the UK, so when I start my day at 9.30CET, I’m still ahead of the UK typical hours by 30 minutes – so if I have to chat with folk first thing in the morning, it is not too much of an issue.
Time for Play
I tend to dart into my social media platforms all through the day – it has been quite distracting – so this time, I built in 15 minutes between each slot to catch up on tweets and interesting posts to read. Between this and using queuing apps like Buffer, I seem to be doing OK. Also knowing I have made time to workout (that is what HIIT represents – High Intensity Interval Training), do some spanish lessons (with duolingo.com) and practice on my saxophone – my brain does not agitate and give in easily to distractions. Aside for the odd nap!
Flexibility
I tend to stick to my schedule fairly strictly – at least for the early days – but there is always room to be flexible. For example , my wife has a lunch date and I can easily swap my half-day on Friday to a Wednesday. Other times if I really need to play the sax to get a tune out of my head and just jam, then I’ll do that and adjust that day accordingly. Oh and let’s not forget the beach. Gotta go to the beach.
Also I try to be in bed and asleep by midnight and back up at 7:30 – ish. Might do some reading but mostly that just sends me to sleep!
What is important to you in your daily life and how do you make time for it? Would love to hear about your routine, please tweet me or comment below.