My typical weekday routine

Whenever I set out out to write about this kind of personal topic, the first thought that my handy procrastinator throws at me is: "Who gives a bleeping fuck about this; everyone has their own day to worry about anyway. So, go get a life, sucker cos no one's gonna read this"! 

However, from experience (mainly of me being a consumer of seemingly too-personal details of other people's lives on the internet), I've found that it's not always that obvious how talking about yourself can be of benefit to others. But I know how much reading about and watching others' lives has benefited me.

So, here we go into that fun ride known as my weekday routine: 

Getting set (4 to 5:40 hrs)

I wake up between 4 and 4:30 most days. My days of snoozing the alarm are long gone. A lot of the time, I do not hear the alarm until it has rung for about 5 minutes. But then, once I gain consciousness, that's it. I'm up and ready to go.

I get up, and go about the following activities in no set order:

 

- down a glass of water

- empty my bladder and if necessary, the other wastage storage chamber

- brush my teeth (depending on how early I wake, and some miscellanous activity that might creep in to lengthen my getting set time, I sometimes defer this to be done at work *grin*)

- take a bath

- get dressed

- take more water

- head out to work on or before 5:40 while everyone in the house is still fast asleep and some of my colleagues are still snoring their lives away

All of this takes me an average of one hour to complete. I like to take my time.

Why do I wake up so early when I live within a twenty minute drive of work? Well, for one, I get to be present during my most productive and private time of the day. Also, I get to park for free at the office. The parking space for staff which is closest to the office is pretty scarce, so, when I reviewed my budget and figured out that I would be shelling out over 4000 naira a month if I couldn't park for free, I decided I was going to be a morning person. Better a nice meal with 4000 naira than give it to a gateman who feels entitled.

 

Driving to work (5:40 to 6 hrs)

This takes me between 15 and 20 minutes of mostly smooth driving. The only delays I encounter at this time of day are brief stoppages due to traffic light controls. Also, I can enjoy the great feeling of having my car windows wound down, chill music seeping out the speakers and the clean morning wind breezing across my face to make the driving to work experience truly surreal. This is a great way to start the day, take it from me. My brain comes to life! 

On another level, I get to save fuel by not using the AC; lol (I see you, CheapSkate. You never miss a chance to feature)

The parking spot is a constant challenge that gets me a little uncomfortable when I'm a few seconds away. Parallel parking in reverse mode is just

6 to 8 hrs

I consider this the most valuable time of my day. My brain is awake, brimming with thoughts and ideas. There's no one to distract me or stand in the way of my doing exactly what I want to do with umatchable energy. For example: writing this shitty article. More often than not, I spend it reading stuff from the various blogs I'm subscribed to. 

My goal for this time of day is to spend at least, one hour completely focused on learning something that will make me better at my work. I'm not there yet, but acknowledging it is a good start.

8 to 17 hrs

These are my official working hours. Even though, most of the time, I would have run through my late mails from the previous day and completed work on the most cogent requests way before 8, using of course, my amazing 6 - 8 where I can do absolutely anything. 

Within this time, I have breakfast and lunch (yes, these are the most amazing parts of the day; my colleagues know it!), and work hard at achieving my goals for the day (which I think I should note down at the start of every day). Doing this will help me not to feel lost like I did yesterday, wondering why I am so idle when I probably have some pending work hanging around but can't recall because no one is hounding me over it. 

The need to brainstorm what I need to do at the start of each day, especially in periods like this when I'm rounding up a project and there's not that much stimulating work to do cannot be overemphasized. 

Most days, I'm quite productive. But other days, not very much. And depending on a combination of my mood and how your approach me, I can either be a ruthless brat or a helpful angel when you need me to pitch in on something.

As for what I do, I write code. To clarify further, I help my employer create software applications which help to automate/expand some of their important business processes. I'm in the specific area of building applications that extend banking services to customers via electronic channels. This involves: 

> reading a lot

> spending a lot of time on StackOverflow trying to find answers from more experienced colleagues all over the world

> racking my brain for hours on end figure out and implemeting application features as neatly as possible and

> modulating my temper when dealing with my mostly annoying  non-technical colleagues

17 to 22 hrs

The last time I closed at 5pm was several months ago. Having said that, it's a good day if I'm able to leave the office at 7pm. As a matter of fact, of late, when I've had the chance to leave the office relatively early (between 6 and 7), there's a lingering feeling of guilt. I just cannot shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something; that I am not doing enough. This is the power of conditioning. When crazy is practiced as normal for an extended period, then crazy becomes normal and of course, when you experience normal, you don't feel so at home with yourself.

For the days when I close early enough, my range of activities is pretty variable. Mostly, I'll waste away 'hangout' on my phone or on my PC for most of the time. If I'm feeling adequately energized, I go our for a 25-minute run. I'm still trying to figure out if truly, exercising just before bedtime is a contributor to insomnia.

One Sunday night, about three weeks ago, I decided it was the best time to go for a 40-minute run on the mountainous Lekki-Ikoyi bridge. I ended up spending at least, three hours rolling around in bed that night, not knowing whether I was asleep or awake. My legs were aching bad as well, so I'm not sure if it was the exercise or the pain. 

Gosh, I hate that feeling of wasting away in bed. If the next day had been a weekend, I'd have promptly hopped back in front of my PC or phone to do God knows what till I was drooling. But in this case, well, I had to recharge for the hectic day ahead.

I try not to eat after six most days, of which most times nowadays, it's not usually that difficult for me because the number of interesting things to eat when I get home is exactly zero.

At the back of my mind at the start of each day is that I hope to get some traction on either personal development or pet projects. Alas, that aspiration falls through more often that not. I am a long way from being the model child in productivity, but I have undeniably improved over the past few years. No one can take that away from me. I just need to improve my ability to command focus on important tasks on-demand.

I strive to go to bed latest at 10:30, cos' that's the only way that I can get 6 hours of sleep which i think is the minimum that does it for me. 

That's all folks. I would love to hear your thoughts as a result of consuming this sneak peek into my daily schedule. Also with wide arms will I welcome any questions/suggestions from you, you amazing reader of my blog. Thank you.

Time to zzzzZZZ... (22/23 hrs - wake up time)

See you at 4:30 tomorrow :)