Routines

I've never been very good at routines.  Not because I object to doing the same thing every day -- if I like what I'm doing, I don't mind doing a lot of it -- but because I'm too easily distracted and not disciplined enough to maintain an orderly schedule.

However, I've come to believe that this is a failing, and one that limits my ability to accomplish as much as I want to.  There are always too many different things pulling on me and my time, and without routines I tend to spend lots of my time on things that don't matter at the expense of things that do.  Also, after all of the chaos of the last couple of years, I find myself actually looking for routine.


Routines are especially important, I think, for making time for those things that we know we should do, and some of the time want to do, but which in the moment are often easy-to-skip chores.  Exercise is a big one.   Scripture study.  Flossing.   Keeping up with the finances/budget.  And lots more things, some big, some very small.


So, I'm going to try to create a nice set of routines for myself and stick to them, at least for weekdays.  I'll work on weekends later.  So here's what my day should look like (I don't expect anyone to read this; typing it all out is for my benefit):

• 5:00 AM.  Wake up, get the kids up, then catch up on e-mail while Kris gets breakfast ready.
• 5:30 AM.  Breakfast & scripture study with the family.  I won't eat, though.
• 6:00 AM.  Hop on the bike and ride 10 miles to the bus stop in Longmont.
• 6:38 AM.  Get on the bus, putting my bike on the rack on the front.
• 7:14 AM.  Arrive at the office, shower and change (and brush, floss, comb hair, etc.).  Also weigh in.
• 7:45 AM.  Spend an hour focused on improving my work efficiency.  This means reading books, learning tools, etc.  Whatever I can do to make myself more effective.  A couple of days per week I'll spend this time editing photos instead.  From time to time I may opt to do the full 23-mile bike ride to the office, rather than taking the bus, which will consume some of this time.
• 8:45 AM.  Breakfast in the Google cafe.
• 9:00 AM.  Work.
• 12:00 PM.  Lunch in the Google cafe.  If the weather is nice, eat outside and get some sun, or take a walk.
• 12:45 PM.  Work.
• 5:01 PM.  Hop on the bus to Longmont.
• 5:41 PM.  Arrive in Longmont, start the 10-mile ride home.
• 6:15 PM.  Arrive home.
• 6:30 PM.  Dinner with the family.
• 7:00 PM.  Flexible.  In the near term it'll mostly be organizing the house, getting the computers set up, etc.  I'm sure there will be plenty of helping the kids with homework, and such.  On Fridays, date night with Kristanne.
• 8:30 PM.  Chat with Kris, check-in with Makae, plan the coming day.
• 9:00 PM.  Kris and the kids go to bed.  Update accounting, check e-mail, personal scripture study.
• 10:00 PM.  Bedtime.

That's my plan.  It includes a little more than eight hours per day of work, which is realistic.  Google doesn't demand the hours that a lot of software companies do, but my experience is that I need a little more than 40 hours per week to keep up on everything.  The decision to bike/bus rather than drive means I'll spend three hours per day commuting, rather than the one hour I could spend, but about half of that time will be exercising and the other half I can use to read, do e-mail, or whatever.  Riding 20 miles per day should mean that I really don't need to worry about going to the gym or other exercise (though I probably should do some pushups, situps and maybe lift weights a little -- gotta set up the weight bench in the basement).


Wish me luck.