I have never written one of these before. I may never again. However, I feel like in this, hopefully, once in a life time event, I should record the day to day activities and look back once we emerge on the other side. (Ironically, when this post goes live, I will have a different schedule since school is “out” for “Spring Break.”)
6:30am
The alarm on my kindle goes off but I don’t get out of bed. I open up the kindle to the CNN live updates page and scrolled down to the last update I saw the night before so I could catch up on the latest in the COVID-19 pandemic. After that, I switch over to my latest book, the first in a three part biography of Theodore Roosevelt. For the next hour, I read and doze before getting up.
8:00am
I head downstairs, warm up some blueberry muffins and putter around on the internet looking at personal, random stuff until I start my office hours.
8:30am-12:00pm
Virtual office hours start so I spend the next twenty minutes getting the announcements and check-ins up and ready to go in all my Google Classrooms. After I make these announcements, I settle into my new routine. W spend about ten minutes reviewing work and updating forms before taking a break to read either my book in Spanish or the textbook for one of my two grad classes. or to complete my hip and glute exercises. Early on in the process, I found that if I sit and focus on the computer work without a break, I get stressed both mentally and physically.
12pm-1pm
On previous days, I had done things like getting grad work done during my lunch break but lately I have become really unproductive and watched Brandon Farris videos instead. I probably should completely disconnect from the computer during my hour lunch break.
1pm-2pm
I logged on to Zoom for our instructional meeting. (I don’t think they have a formal name.) They started the second week of virtual learning with emails from the Instructional Coach telling us that she would share information at these meetings. While I think that most of the information presented in these meetings could and should be sent via email, I think that administration sees this as a way to bring the faculty together in this highly isolating time.
1pm-2:30pm
After signing off from the meeting, I resumed my earlier work routine, alternating between work and personal to do list items. The workload tends to diminish around the afternoon since students tend to work more either first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon or evening. (I had one student complete the flipgrid at 1:30 in the morning but that’s an aberration.)
2:30pm-3:15pm
I get wrapped up in getting the file of my internship handbook ready to print so I could get to one of the items crossed off my list. I got so wrapped up that I did not realize how much time had passed until 3:15 arrived and I needed to wrap up school work.
3:15pm-4:00pm
I dedicated my attention to providing feedback to everything that my students had turned in since I last checked as well as updating the spreadsheet where I kept track of who had done work and who had not.
4pm-4:30pm
While I waited for Mom to finish up her work, I read the Teddy Roosevelt biography.
4:30pm-6pm
Mom and I headed out the door for our run. I appreciate the ability to run directly from the house, something that I did not have until a little over a year and a half ago. I talked about the run here.
6pm-7pm
I have developed a habit, a not so good one, of taking way too long to get cleaned up after my runs and get back to some semblance of productivity. I get in my post-run stretches and take way too long in the shower but managed to get it done and come downstairs in time for supper.
7pm-8pm
Since Aunt Kathleen has felt sick lately (at the time), she has stayed home out of an abundance of caution. That meant that she no longer made supper for Grandpa. Even though Mom has had a lot on her plate, she stepped in and made a simple yet delicious meal of backed chicken, pilaf, and peas. I ate with Grandpa while we watched a couple episodes of Jeopardy on Netflix.
8pm-11pm-ish
After Grandpa finished his meal and headed upstairs. I piddled around with working on this blog entry, watching a Netflix documentary, journaling and cross stitching before I headed to bed.
Thanks for following me on twitter and sharing a day in the life. Your days seem far more productive than mine so not sure I’ll steal the idea. Keep writing, and taking care of those loved ones and be safe.
Thanks Ty! I definitely don’t feel productive most of the time. 🙂
I love how you so consistently make time for things like journaling and cross-stitching and Netflix documentaries and running. That’s so incredibly healthy and admirable, and it’s so cool to see that it’s possible to make those things part of normal, everyday life and not have them just be “extras” to add on if there happens to be time.
Also, while I was reading this, it made me think of something I’ve been learning a lot about recently. A really important part of productivity is breaks and rest! Our brains and bodies need breaks and rest and play a whole lot more than we realize in order to process information and function properly and optimally. I’ve begun to notice that very frequently, when I find patterns of spots in my schedule where I’m repeatedly getting derailed, what I’m seeing are actually indicators of a need for restructuring to build in intentional play/rest/entertainment/breaks/transition time/etc. rather than places I need to cut off access to those things and add increased methods of productivity.
Also, your note about the time it takes showering, etc. after runs really resonates with me. I find my transitions between physical activity and whatever else I have next are ones that take me longer than I plan or expect. It makes a lot of sense when I think about it though. Not only has our body just done an immense amount of work, we’re also moving from an activity that’s sensory and kinesthetic and very based in our bodies to other activities that are generally more based in logical, cerebral, intellect, thinking-brain space . (These are, of course, very specific, fancy, scientific, professional descriptions ?) Our logic brain has a sense of time and an idea of what’s important, but our bodies often need things that don’t necessarily seem important to our logic brain. I’m curious if maybe some part of what contributes to a tendency to prolong that transition time is the body attempting to slow the logic brain down in order to meet sensory/physical needs that the logic brain tends to overlook.
Side note: I actually really like the idea of doing something like this and making a log of what my typical days are like. For one, it’s kinda neat to look back later and see what life was like (especially since I have ZERO actual memories of life ?), and it’s also kind of a neat way to notice what your natural rhythms and patterns.
Ps. I love that you give yourself time to ease into waking up. I’ve always struggled with getting up and immediately jumping into life and feeling like that’s just something humans are obviously “supposed” to do. When I do give myself a little time to warm up to the idea of being a human when I wake up though, it always seems to go a little more smoothly.
All of this is so true! I needed that now, especially as I try to figure out how to get everything done with this ridiculously complicated school year.