a morning in the life of …

My days off currently seem to disappear into some sort of vortex. In an effort to see where the time goes, I’m going to attempt to log my activities in utterly excruciating detail.

… insanity warning here …

5:38am
✚ get up
✚ splash cold water on face
✚ feed kitties
✚ make coffee
✚ back to bed
✚ check email, twitter, instagram

6:00am
✚ drink coffee
✚ read blogs via the old reader on tablet
✚ pat NewKitty

6:35am
✚ update various hardcopy journals. At the moment I’m running a daily diary for food, clothes, moods, happenings; a record of discretionary spending; a log of 3 things I’m positive about / grateful for & 3 things I plan to do in the day.

6:50am
✚ exercise – push-ups (on knees) [57]; situps [66]; lunges [30], squats with medicine ball [23]

7:10am
✚ collapse in heap on bed
✚ read a few more bloggy things

7:35am
✚ shower / moisturise / brush teeth / put goop in hair / dress
✚ pack away toiletries sitting in shopping bag on floor since Wednesday
✚ scoop litter from multiple litter boxes

8:00am
✚ check rye-an seacrust
✚ be amazed at growth
✚ show rye-an to Don
✚ take photo
✚ instagram photo

8:15am
✚ farewell Don
✚ check work email for director changes / sign-off for thing due at 10am which should have been signed-off yesterday
✚ make coffee
✚ get reading glasses from desk upstairs
✚ do 20 minute work thing for 10am

8:40am
✚ decide to write this post
✚ start writing this post
✚ while writing flick between 3 blogs, work email, twitter, instagram, gmail
✚ tidy kitchen counter

9:00am
✚ put away last night’s washing up
✚ pour (2nd) coffee
✚ sip coffee
✚ realise coffee is cold because it has been sitting on counter for 45 minutes
✚ zap coffee in microwave
✚ wash french press and early morning coffee cups
✚ boil water for iced tea
✚ flick through 6 tabs on browser (have 15 tabs open on firefox, 3 on seamonkey, only one on edge)
✚ email Don and Joe/Frank about this tweet about the Leyton Hewitt paradox
✚ read bits of this really interesting kottke post about this really interesting waitbutwhy post about horizontal history while flicking around other browser tabs
✚ notice email about ziera new season shoes and 50% off second pair sale
✚ flick around browser tabs
✚ read ziera email
✚ go find ziera link
✚ back to kottke post
✚ update this post
✚ read more of kottke post
✚ update more of this post
✚ check work email
✚ catch glimpse of google doodle while looking for link to old reader
✚ wonder if those are chillis or autumn leaves on the google doodle
✚ wonder if it is international chilli day
✚ wonder where in the world it is autumn
✚ post link to old reader at entry for 6am
✚ go back to check out google doodle
✚ wonder who Wilbur Scoville is (doodle subject of the day)
✚ google Wilbur Scoville
✚ read wikipedia article about Wilbur Scoville
✚ realise those things in the doodle were chillis
✚ find link to explain google doodles
✚ post link to explain google doodle

9:30am
✚ be completely horrified about I have spent the last 30 minutes
✚ realise that I probably spend hours and hours per day doing similar things
✚ light-bulb moment when I become aware that this is probably why I don’t seem to ever accomplish anything
✚ wonder if I have ADD
✚ resist googling ADD symptoms
✚ force self to get up from couch and tidy living room
✚ water indoor plants
✚ re-boil water for iced-tea
✚ clean glass on dining room cabinets
✚ answer urgent work emails from Vincenzo (there are very tense multi-million dollar negotiations going on)
✚ sort documents (paid bills, bank statements, business cards + such)
✚ take photo of amusing trading card for future posts
✚ file / discard documents as appropriate
✚ make-iced tea
✚ more urgent emails – hope those are the last!
✚ flick through a couple of browser tabs
✚ clean out handbag

10:30am
✚ fold laundry
✚ boggle at the American-isms I now use without thinking (eg. fold laundry v fold washing)
✚ give load of knitwear (tee-shirts & such) quick burst in dryer to remove creases (and avoid ironing!)
✚ take photo of and replace cord on yoga mat bag – we haven’t used it for years, but I’d recently pulled it out of Bessie’s cupboard when getting out the scanner. This week there was a length of cord on a card-holder I bought which I thought would be much better than the existing too-long one
✚ take photo of newly installed cord

✚ turn this post into bullet points (was previously a huge wall of comma separated text)
✚ try to get Eagles/Glenn Frey songs out of my head
✚ check spelling of Glenn, change spelling of Glen to Glenn
✚ consider bringing one of the plants from the front veranda into the dining area to deter certain a certain BabyKitty weeing on the floor
✚ take photo of plant

✚ realise plant is too heavy to bring up solo
✚ collect fallen leaves and put in bin
✚ fold and pack away Joe/Frank’s winter wool quilt that was airing on the 3rd floor stair rail for the last 2 weeks
✚ check old reader for blog updates
✚ read post about thigh toning exercises
✚ post link to post about thigh toning exercises
✚ fold laundry from dryer
✚ another load into the dryer
✚ consider taking BabyKitty’s boden sleeping box to garage (her level of interest goes in waves, currently disinterested)
✚ take photo of BabyKitty’s sleeping box in situ (currently in the location I was thinking of putting the plant)

✚ take sleeping box to garage
✚ put cat grass in preferred wee spot
✚ update this post
✚ take photo of cat grass in preferred wee spot

✚ kitties are awake!
✚ talk to kitties
✚ take photos off phone
✚ edit photos in photoshop
✚ check browser tabs
✚ edit photos in photoshop
✚ load photos to InformationSuperhighway via ftp
✚ add photos to post
✚ assess whether I need all of those browser tabs open
✚ bookmark a whole bunch of stuff and close unnecessary tabs
✚ send horizontal history links (above) to Don
✚ answer another Vincenzo email
✚ look at job-link sent by Joan (who is searching)
✚ realise it was one of her former employers and experienced a little vicarious ptsd
✚ fold laundry
✚ another load of laundry into the dryer (it’s a quite small dryer)

12:00pm
✚ wrap up this post
✚ think that I should probably eat something

xxxxxxxxxx

This little exercise was a complete revelation to me. That list is completely insane and I don’t think I captured everything.

Little wonder I am not at all productive when I am completely unfocused and jumping from one thing to another. And as for my thought processes – yipes! – I am incredibly, unbelievably scattered.

This was only supposed to be a bit of silliness, but there is SO MUCH I can take from this.

Can I just CTRL-Z on the whole morning?

2 thoughts on “a morning in the life of …

  1. I was reading about some tool which allowed you to mute social media while working. I have learned to ignore most of that but I think it is insidious. I’ve also had some success with pomodoro on focusing on the task in hand.

    • When I’ve tried those tools before I’ve invariably ended up sneaking around or bypassing them.

      I think my real issue is not having a clear plan of what I need / want to do, so I end up ditzing about for hours – and then getting frustrated that I don’t accomplish anything!

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