A Day In The Life and WIAW

I find it pretty interesting that in all of the days and weeks I could have written about my typically day I choose a day and a week that is anything but typical.  I think it is a coping mechanism. I am so busy and out of my norm this week that I can only think about sharing with you something I am more comfortable in explaining.  

Our alarm goes off at 6am. I get out of bed anywhere between 5:20-6:30am.  I get up much earlier in the summer than the winter.  I am definitely a morning person through and through.

The first thing I do is grab coffee. The machine is set to go off at 6am. If I am up before then I hit the start button for some immediate caffeination. I really just like the warm beverage.  I take my 3/4 coffee, 1/4 milk - like a latte without the steamed milk.   I am eying some espresso machines though my birthday is one day short of two months away.  With coffee in hand I turn on the news and switch on my computer. Most days I have about 30 minutes to myself before Mr. J gets up too. I answer emails, post my blog, and read other blogs.  This is my favorite time of the day.  

By 7am I am jumping in the shower and making breakfast. Most days it is a smoothie blend with banana and spinach.  Other times it is cereal or toast/waffles with nut butter and banana.  I eat a banana 99% of the days.  A long time ago when I was in high school someone told me that bananas make you not bruise as easily. I have had one pretty much every day since. I still bruise.  Funny, this was one of those things I would touch growing up.

In the morning, I can also be found emptying the dishwasher, loading the dishwasher (when Mr. J has too many snacks after dinner and somehow the sink is full again over night), and doing laundry. I can clean bathrooms, and pack for upcoming work trips. If I am stressed, I bake early in the morning. I go on kicks of running to the gym before work too. That means leaving at 6:20am and getting back to shower by 7:45am.  Regardless once 7am hits I am not sitting down till I leave for work anywhere from 7:30 to 8am.

I live 5 minutes from my office.  The majority of people come in right at 8:30am. The time before the mass rush arrives is my most productive time. I answer emails, review my schedule for the day, plan out the course of action. If anything has to get done in the day, I do it before anyone else comes in.  Once 8:30 comes, I have less control over my work. I have set meetings but inevitably I get called in to chat with others throughout the day. Depending on who is in the office, I might get assigned more work or projects. I check in with my team, make phone calls with the members outside of my office that I work with, review presentations, and play with all sorts of data reports in excel. Pivot tables and V-look ups are my thing.  I also think about billing projects and professional development training sessions for my team.  My day to day varies a lot, if I am in the office. When I travel I sit a lot, read on planes, practice and review the presentation I am going to give.  

I like to think of myself as one big coordinator. I coordinate my work, my team's work and their development in the company. I also coordinate internal projects and the 40 or so projects I work on with various members across the country.

I break for lunch at 12pm and normally snack at round 10-10:30am with coffee and some kind of munchies. I try to stick with fruit.  For lunch, I go home to eat with Mr. J.  Sometimes I run errands but this always seems stressful with the lunch time traffic.  And quite frankly at lunch I want to eat lunch. If I stay at the office I blog.  If I go home I do more chores around the apartment, any that didn't get done in the morning or if I didn't do any that morning.

By 1pm, I am usually done with my To Do list for the day and am focused on completing those additional items that came up unexpectedly in the morning.  Before 5pm I make sure Mr. J knows what is for dinner and what he needs to do to prep or make it.  We decided the evening plans...I always go to the gym unless it was a rare occasion I made it before work.  Mr. J may or may not go to the golf range. Dinner has to be easy and quick if we both go out.  With the plan in place I leave at 5 to go to the gym for an hour or so.  If I don't go I get antsy and cannot sleep well at night. I get home at 6:30ish just in time for dinner.  Dinner is always suppose to be ready at 6:30 but never really is...Mr. J gets wrapped up in his ESPN shows and time passes without him knowing. Tsk, tsk!  I end up helping pull together the final pieces, and set the table.  We eat together.  During this time I check the mail. I LOVE mail and it is my second favorite time of the day.

After dinner, I clean up the kitchen. I try to start straightening things as soon as I get home as Mr. J can make quite the mess when he makes dinner.  I don't like to go to bed without a clean kitchen so this is a must for me.  After dishes I shower up and get into pajamas.  The next hour or two is spent on the couch with Mr. J watching TV and me on the computer.   Special nights are when there is a show we both want to watch, a Netflix came in the mail, or we go out for ice cream. Mr. J always has at least one snack/dessert after dinner.  My 9pm I am normally pretty tuckered out. I read for a bit in bed and by 10pm we are both ready to go to sleep.

Today I didn't go to the gym since we had our company meeting that started early and lasted late. We did do a volunteer activity though which was trail clean up in the woods. It was enough to not make me antsy.

I am interested in your thoughts. I have been told my multiple people at different times in my life that I get way too much done in one day. They don't know how I do it. I should slow down. Mr. J even leaves when I really get going. He says he gets stressed out watching me. Funny, I am not stressed at all. Thoughts?