Comments on: 2023 Time Tracking Challenge: Day 7 – we made it! https://lauravanderkam.com/2023/01/2023-time-tracking-challenge-day-7-we-made-it/ Writer, Author, Speaker Sat, 21 Jan 2023 11:09:38 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 By: Sgg https://lauravanderkam.com/2023/01/2023-time-tracking-challenge-day-7-we-made-it/#comment-431560 Sat, 21 Jan 2023 11:09:38 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=18945#comment-431560 “(I realize I haven’t mentioned the 13-year-old much in this day. I think he was on the computer playing games 90% of the time…)”

I love this. I only have two kids, but I work a lot, and I put myself under a lot of pressure do be “doing” stuff with them (especially educational stuff) when I am around. It of often ends up backfiring, with me freaking out at somebody because they would rather play with legos (or a screen device) than listen to the story or participate in the creative activity I am trying to force on them.

It is nice to have a reminder that a day on the computer isn’t going to kill anybody, and even if it might not be our idea of the best way to spend the day, if it allow for family harmony and goodwill then it might be worth it.

Thank you!

]]> By: Laura Vanderkam https://lauravanderkam.com/2023/01/2023-time-tracking-challenge-day-7-we-made-it/#comment-430570 Tue, 17 Jan 2023 14:00:37 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=18945#comment-430570 In reply to Lisa of Lisa’s Yarns.

@Lisa – yay for socializing! I’m glad you were able to include that in your 168 hours.

]]> By: Lisa of Lisa’s Yarns https://lauravanderkam.com/2023/01/2023-time-tracking-challenge-day-7-we-made-it/#comment-430424 Mon, 16 Jan 2023 22:20:28 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=18945#comment-430424 I still need to total up my time which I will do when I am back at my work laptop tomorrow (we had today off!). Overall I am happy with how I spent my time. I spent a lot of time socializing! I feel like I crammed a month’s worth of social plans into a week, and that’s even when freezing rain canceled one happy hour! But it’s nice to have a rich social life again. Last year at this time, the toddler was 13m and was still nursing so I couldn’t miss bedtime! I do not miss that!!

]]> By: Elisabeth https://lauravanderkam.com/2023/01/2023-time-tracking-challenge-day-7-we-made-it/#comment-430312 Mon, 16 Jan 2023 13:07:01 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=18945#comment-430312 I suspect people say this frequently, but my week felt atypical. I spent an unexpected amount of time making a decision with doctors about a medical procedure; I had family visiting from out of town and spent several large time chunks entertaining/feeding them.
I felt like my working time was more fractured than usual, but since I work part-time from home, perhaps this is always the case and I simply don’t notice. It was shocking to me how it all adds up. I felt like I had barely worked, but my time log indicates I put in exactly 26 hours.
I also slept 54.25 hours, including one glorious 1.5 hour nap. My son was sick the entirety of December and every night for a month involved night waking with him, but my time log shows that last week I slept straight through every night. I spent 5.75 hours exercising which is well below my average, but I recently stopped my 365 outside walking streak and am taking a well-deserved break. Also, it still amounts to nearly an hour a day, so it’s not nothing.
I fit in 9.25 hours of reading (or reading adjacent activities – ordering books from the library + reading books to/with my kids).
I didn’t tease out my time spent with the kids but there was plenty of that, too. I captured morning snuggles in bed with my husband, baking cookies solo on Sunday afternoon, and making brownies with my daughter for a youth activity (both delicious); I did laundry and scrubbed toilets, and made many cups of tea. I watched three episodes of the new Bernie Madoff documentary, two episodes of Seinfeld, and completed a book (Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad). The time log reflects the kid’s snow day – though it doesn’t capture how I felt like I was going to go crazy by 10 am, before turning on screens for them and locking the office door, putting in headphones, and working for several hours.
My main takeaway? The week contained a lot of fun and mundane activities. So maybe it wasn’t atypical after all?!

]]> By: Amanda https://lauravanderkam.com/2023/01/2023-time-tracking-challenge-day-7-we-made-it/#comment-430289 Mon, 16 Jan 2023 11:03:32 +0000 https://lauravanderkam.com/?p=18945#comment-430289 Loved reading all of these detailed posts this week! I stuck with the challenge and am excited to dig into my data. I don’t feel like I usually “waste” or loose time because I pay pretty close attention to the clock on a daily basis, but I’m excited to look at the week as a whole and see what my totals are in broad categories. I already know the amount of time I spent with my husband was abysmal. I also only spent 30 minutes exercising the whole week. It was a bad night for kids’ sleep for some reason, and I was recovering from being on call and working last weekend, so I was in bed pretty early a few nights. But I know that we did a pretty good job w family dinner, I made progress on some big work goals, and got a couple of kids’ appointments out of the way. We also spent time with adult friends (though my 4 year old tagged along) and saw my mom and step-dad. My biggest personal goal this year is to get back into the habit of exercising, so I’m hoping I can come up with a plan as I sit down to review my hours!

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