[Tracking Every Minute]Day 1 – A child’s birthday
Of course, the first day of the track every minute challenge is a Sunday and it’s my sons birthday. This is going to be an impressive display of productivity for everyone to behold…
If I was only tracking my time to measure my productivity, this might seem like a waste of a day. However, I do want to make sure that I am using all of my time as well as possible.
If I am home with my kids, I want it to be awesome.
So there it is…
Woke up pretty late after a night out with friends. We got home and decorated my sons bedroom and setup the dining room table with his gifts. 8:30 is pretty late even for a weekend, but even the birthday boy slept in until that time.
Birthday tradition in our house is a homemade pancake breakfast feast. We put a candle in the stack of pancakes and sing happy birthday to start the day.
Then we sit around the table and eat and talk for a bit. Again, woke up around 8:30, breakfast and singing probably started at around 9:30, then we sat around and talked until 11:30.
At 11:30 my son, who loves his birthday and being the youngest loves to exert any power he might have over the family, chose to play board games.
We fired up Clue, I dominated as I always do as Colonel Mustard. We played and laughed for a few hours.
We wrapped with a quick lunch then I headed out to the supermarket to get some odds and ends for dinner later in the day. In addition to the market, I also stopped by our favorite coffee shop and picked up a little afternoon pick me up. 2:00 to 3:30 I was out of the house.
When I got back at 3:30 the in-laws were at the house. My wife promised the birthday boy his favorite meal, steak and home made fries.
Kids played monopoly with their grandparents. My wife was multi-tasking, playing monopoly and cooking the birthday meal.
I am no longer allowed to play monopoly with the family as they have ruled that I am a capitalistic pig who unfairly accumulates real estate and oppresses them all. So I watched them play and helped out with dinner.
Dinner, cake and then clean up finished at around 8:00 and the in-laws took off. Wife and I were pretty exhausted from the the day before and today. Sent everyone to start winding down for bedtime.
I ended up falling asleep at around 9:30.
Takeaway from Day 1
- While I started this challenge as a way to make sure that I am setting aside time to work on my goals, I am actually pretty happy day 1 was a non-work day. Trying to get control of time is not only an exercise for the office.
- Drinking / staying up late affect you. Duh! But seriously, tired and sluggish the entire day.
- Son turned 11, not sure how many more times he will be this excited for his birthday and want to spend it with us. Happy to take advantage of this time.
If you want to follow along with my progress tracking every minute of every day for the month of December, sign up below: