[Tracking Every Minute]-Day 7 – The Weekend Begins
While I started this challenge to track every minute of my day on a Sunday, this beginning of a new weekend feels different. Most likely because I am entering the weekend after having two great days for my personal life, but those days were awful for productivity and working towards my goals.
Days 5 and 6 were days I am very grateful for. A+ for my personal life. I am truly blessed to be able to have those types of days on a Thursday and Friday. However, I started this challenge as I was reflecting on the past year and noticed how little time I had spent working towards some of my goals. I vowed not to let it happen again.
Tracking how I spend every minute in December will help me come up with a plan for spending my time better moving forward.
Today was a big day of family responsibilities and logistics.
6:00 – 7:00. Even though this is a Saturday, two of my kids have entrance exams for new schools. I am taking my son and my wife is taking my daughter. Had to walk the dogs and get the kids fed to head out.
7:00 – 8:30. My son will be going into middle school, so I had to get down and wait in the school gym for all of the parents and kids to arrive. School administrators said a few words and told us when and where to pick up the kids.
8:30 – 9:30. Both of the schools are pretty far from where we currently live, but they are closer to each other. Got a chance to meet up with my wife for breakfast. It’s a cute bakery and I have my laptop, so I can get a few hours of work in.
9:30 – 10:30. Got an hour of focused time in at the bakery.
10:30 – 12:30. Head back to pick up my son. Boys are all released at different times depending on when everyone in their classroom finishes. Lots of standing around and talking with other parents. Trying to remember where I know people from and way to much small talk.
12:30 – 2:00. My son is secured, we hit another bakery, this time a cuban one for lunch. We have time to kill and it doesn’t make sense for us to head home, so we stop in at a Best Buy to check out the PS5 he desperately wants to buy for himself.
2:00 – 3:00. Driving my son to a soccer game.
3:00 – 4:00. I get another hour of focused time to work while sitting in the car waiting for his game to start. I was not expecting this but was very happy about it.
4:00 – 5:00. Soccer game. Sons team loses, he barely plays. Not great all the way around.
5:00 – 7:00. Drive home. Yeah, this was a rough one. I live on Miami Beach and its currently Art Basel. The traffic is insane, getting on and off and even just moving around Miami Beach is not a great time.
7:00 – 10:00. Settle in at home. Watch a movie with two of the kids. Get ready to do it all again tomorrow.
Making the Most of It
One of the most important things I have learned through 7 days of this challenge is that I should always have a laptop on me. If I am taking my kids to an event, for example, a soccer game. They will have to be there an hour before the game starts. That is an hour I have to get in work. I need to take advantage of this time.
It might look anti-social to other parents there. To be clear, I am choosing to be anti-social. I am sitting in my car or at a bench alone working on my laptop. If that is the sacrifice that I have to make to attend my kids events and achieve my goals, I am very willing to make it.
I got two solid focused hours of work in today because I had my laptop with me and I had the intention to do so. I was not expecting to get any today, so I see this as a major win. It also helps to offset how little I did the last two days.
Main Takeaways
- Worth stating again, have a laptop on you.
- Again, it was another great day. Quick breakfast date with wife and full day of quality time with my son. Truly blessed.
- Art Basel traffic sucks.
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