- 42.5 hours working
- 40.5 hours asleep (gotta stock up for when the baby arrives - at least I'm going to keep telling myself that...)
- 19.5 hours doing miscellaneous things (going to the doctor, talking to my parents, writing thank you notes, reading etc.)
- 14.5 hours eating or doing food prep/clean up
- 9.75 hours exercising
- 9.75 hours watching TV (yikes)
- 9 hours commuting
- 9 hours getting ready (showering, putting on make up, drying my hair, packing up for the next day...)
- 6 hours doing internet-related things (reading blogs and working on this one)
- 5 hours doing housework (surprising exactly no one who has ever been to anyplace I've ever lived... I'm a pretty terrible housekeeper)
- 2.5 hours practicing the keyboard (1/2 hour 5 days a week)
In pie-chart form:
Take-home points:
- I was really surprised at how much cumulative time little "filler" activities like loading the dishwasher, packing my lunch, getting dressed to work out (especially when it's cold out) and going through the mail take. If you add up all of those activities - miscellaneous, getting ready and commuting - that is what I actually spend most of my life doing. Looking back through my time log, this wasn't wasted time; it was all stuff that needed to be done. Maybe it could be streamlined to take less time, but I'm not sure.
- I'm very lucky in the work and (for now) the sleep department. I'm fortunate that I have a job where I can usually leave everything behind in the evenings and on weekends, and I know once the baby is born I'm not going to see sleeping 8 hours a night again for the next 18+ years.
- I watch too much TV. I could get worked up about it, but I guess that's a problem that will go away on its own once the baby was born.. Really, those hours just represent a couple episodes of Downton Abbey and Foyle's War, but I wish the TV and piano hours were flip flopped.
- You can't tell from the data presented above, but I tend to be pretty productive until about 7pm after which everything falls apart. Rather than spending the last two or so hours of my day doing something productive, that's when I find myself watching TV or reading, and it's definitely the time I'm going to have to reclaim to keep life in balance once we add the baby to the equation.
It would be interesting to do this activity 6 months from now and see how things actually do change once the baby is born.
As a working mom 6 months from now, I bet that those post-7pm hours (where you usually watch TV or read) will be dedicated to getting ready for the next day. At least that's how it goes for me. I find myself making lunches for the next day, washing bottles and pumping stuff, taking a shower at night because it's too hectic in the morning, etc. If I have time and I'm not sick or tired (which, by way, is not very often when you have a new baby in a germ pit, er, I mean, daycare), I squeeze in a quick pilates and cardio workout. Nevertheless, you won't be watching as much TV, I promise! :-) But, you won't even have time to miss TV shows, so no worries. You'll be fantastic!
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