My Typical Day


A blogging chain is going around, that has folks sharing their typical days. Itā€™s interesting to read through everyoneā€™s responses, especially given the whole pandemic situation. It can feel like everyoneā€™s just carrying on (weā€™re all tired of the ā€œthis is fineā€ meme, but that), so reading the real, everyday experiences feels veryā€¦ soothing. I donā€™t know, maybe thatā€™s the wrong way to phrase it. I was tagged by Mel, who was tagged by Eric. Colin Devroe, who started this whole thing, has collected a bunch of the posts here


My biggest switch with the pandemic was that I stopped working from cafes and coworking spaces – Iā€™d already been working remotely for years. I don’t really schedule out my workdays, I try to leave space open so I can really dive into something if I’m feeling focused, or catch up on assorted chats/projects/etc if I’m not. Actually, writing this out has been an interesting process in how I might want to use my time differently.

8:45-9:45 My alarm goes off at some point (I shift it based on bedtime). I do the typical social media & news checkins, peek at my work emails and slack. I donā€™t answer anything from bed, I actually hate typing on my phone; this is just to get a feel for the day. Double check if I have any meetings (rare), and then head downstairs.

9:45-10:30 Get roughly dressed (real clothes do make me feel better but a) I include leggings in ā€œreal clothesā€ and b) sometimes you just need PJs). Head downstairs. I have our speaker play the news, and do some light kitchen-cleaning while making espresso for an iced latte & grabbing breakfast. Iā€™m a pastry-breakfast kind of person (fully incompatible with my meat + eggs spouse), and I like baking, so I try to keep something on hand for breakfast. Currently, thatā€™s grapefruit and poppy scones.

If I donā€™t have anything ready-made, grab something from the cafe down the street, and skip the news.

10:30-2:00 First work shift. Clear email & slack, reply to the things that need replies, create a todo list for the day. I keep track of my tasks with todoist or a paper todo list, depending on how I feel. Lately Iā€™ve been working on a project that feels really undefined, so Iā€™ve been struggling with organization/motivation. I donā€™t have any tricks for fixing that, so instead Iā€™ve been more productive on other projects.

I keep slack open all day, and usually check it while whatever Iā€™m working on is rebuilding. If things are going well, Iā€™ll get into a good flow around 12-2.

2:00-3:00 Lunchtime. Pre-pandemic (and before we moved) I would often get lunch & cafe-work for the afternoon. Moving physical space helped break up the day, in a way that taking a walk doesnā€™t. I come right back to the same desk, did I even do anything? Since weā€™ve moved (and, you know), I havenā€™t really found a favorite lunch place (I miss Darwinā€™s, Tatte, Flour, Curio, Lamplighterā€¦). I know I need to explore more, but between the winter weather and, you know, I havenā€™t. Moving states during a pandemic is rough.

So instead, Iā€™ll heat up some frozen thing or leftovers. I eat back at my desk, continuing work – or more likely, catching up on social media & watercooler slack channels.

Sometime after 3:00 Time for coffee part 2! All the good cafes nearby close at 3, which is usually when I want another cup. So I head back downstairs to make another latte.

Late afternoon Almost all my meetings are 4pm or later, since half my team is in Australia & South Korea. Continue working, I usually hit another flow 4-5:30.

6:30-7:00 The end of my workday. I head back downstairs & put on a podcast (lately Iā€™ve been enjoying Youā€™re Wrong About & Maintenance Phase), and clean up the day’s & prior nightā€™s dishes. This is basically my ā€œwork brain offā€ switch. At some point Mel comes in and starts making dinner, and we chat a bit. Sometimes thereā€™s a zoom with friends here.

8:00ish Dinner time with the TV on, currently an older season of Top Chef.

Evenings My evenings are mostly hanging out on the couch reading the internet. I have a small duolingo streak in Korean (29 days) – started because I wanted to learn to read ķ•œźø€ (hangul), but now Iā€™m kind of invested. Iā€™ve been tinkering with a new site design, but my ā€œwash dishes switchā€ works too well, and I find it hard to get back into coding in the evenings (probably for the best).

Sometimes laundry or baking will happen. Every few days I feed my sourdough starter. Iā€™ll watch my spouse play video games, or maybe weā€™ll watch a TV show ā€” weā€™re finally caught up on the MCU movies, so weā€™ll start WandaVision next. Maybe Iā€™ll cross stitch again.

12:00am-ish (okay definitely more like 1am-ish) Time for bed. Nothing interesting here – I might read for a bit, but more likely I’ll just listen to the TV and fall asleep.

And that’s it. Repeat, until the weekend, where the whole day kind of looks like the “evenings” šŸ™‚ (that’s not true, we own a house now, there are a bunch of house-projects I can poke at on the weekends).

I’m not going to call on anyone else to write up their day, but it was fun – so if you’re interested, consider yourself tagged!

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  1. […] ended 2021 with a 314 day streak on Duolingo! I mentioned in my “My Typical Day” post that I had started learning Korean, and I’ve kept up with it all year. […]