A New Kind Of Schedule: the Self-Imposed Worker Schedule (SIWS)
I'm far too tired to be writing this now, but I need to get my head cleared about how I spend time. Normally I would take care to present this so that someone who isn't me at the moment (e.g. a future me) can lucidly understand what's going on, but I'm really too tired, so I'm just going to get to the point.
I need to spend my time better otherwise I will feel like I'm neglecting parts of myself and I will be deeply unhappy.
I think I need to divide the day into four:
- early morning reading time
- academic work day time
- evening creative work time
- late night reading time
In this way, I will be doing the 3 things most pertinent to my life at this stage.
I get up too late to do early morning reading. I attempt to get up at 8am, but that rarely gives me time to do that early morning reading, save for on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Well, I'm fibbing: it gives me time to do reading on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays; only, I rarely wake up in time to do it, or I sometimes get distracted by other things upon waking.Waking up earlier to give me more time might solve this, but it would be fundamentally changing my days.
If I wake up at 7 am instead of 8 am, that gives me one more hour to read on each day. Even if it's not realistically spent reading, it at least gives me the chance to properly be up for 8, at which point I can exact my previously intended schedule. A 7 am rise, however, means sleeping earlier for the sake of my sanity. This means a 12 am sleep instead of a 1am one. This is incredibly revolutionary to me, but perhaps it could work.
The academic work day will be a bit like my "day job". From 9 or 10 am-5 pm I will endeavour to do academia only. This is rather in fitting with my schedule anyway, so I have no reason not to. There ought to be a break for food in this day - something I often find myself neglecting. I may start making myself sandwiches to take with me about my day.
With the exception of Mondays and Thursdays, my "evening job" will start at 7 pm and end at 9 or 9.30 pm. This will be dedicated to writing and I will do it every weekday, except for Mondays and Thursdays, on which I am already obliged to do other things. To make up for it, I'll have a longer "evening job" on Wednesdays, when I'm completely free: I will work from 5 pm until 9 pm. On these days, for my sanity, I will have a shorter "day job": 9 or 10 am - 3 pm. The two hour break between the day job period and the evening job period is intended for afternoon eating, "dinner".
Finally, the late night reading will start about 10 pm to 12 am every night. The 30 minute to hour long break between this period and the end of the evening job is intended just as a limbo-space wind-down.
For the sake of breadth of reading, I'll try to make my morning reading periods and night reading periods different in content.
In addition to this, I must allow myself, after a fair trial, to abandon books that appear to me dull or likely to make me dread these reading periods. I will always give abandoned books a re-try at a later date to see if I've matured or simply changed, but I can never allow the reading periods to be sullied by an unenjoyable book.
In terms of food I must make sure to eat something upon waking, breakfast, around 7 am or 8 am then again at around 2 pm, then again at around 5 pm. Seeing as breakfast and dinner have the largest periods in between eating, they will have to be the largest meals. For breakfast I will have fruits and nuts and toast and tea: 2 bananas, an apple, peanuts, a slice of toast with peanut butter or jam, and tea. For lunch I will have a sandwich: I will get ideas for fillings from websites. For dinner, I will probably have fish and potatoes or bread and potatoes or bread and fish until I can bring myself to be more creative about cooking. The entire day will be continuously fuelled by caffeine.
This is for weekdays only. Weekends remain free.
I think this is a good disciplined schedule. Thinking about it in terms of work will certainly help prepare me for future life, too. I'm excited to begin this! I may even start tomorrow if I can bring myself to rise early despite the lack of sleep tonight. We'll see.
I need to spend my time better otherwise I will feel like I'm neglecting parts of myself and I will be deeply unhappy.
I think I need to divide the day into four:
- early morning reading time
- academic work day time
- evening creative work time
- late night reading time
In this way, I will be doing the 3 things most pertinent to my life at this stage.
I get up too late to do early morning reading. I attempt to get up at 8am, but that rarely gives me time to do that early morning reading, save for on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Well, I'm fibbing: it gives me time to do reading on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays; only, I rarely wake up in time to do it, or I sometimes get distracted by other things upon waking.Waking up earlier to give me more time might solve this, but it would be fundamentally changing my days.
If I wake up at 7 am instead of 8 am, that gives me one more hour to read on each day. Even if it's not realistically spent reading, it at least gives me the chance to properly be up for 8, at which point I can exact my previously intended schedule. A 7 am rise, however, means sleeping earlier for the sake of my sanity. This means a 12 am sleep instead of a 1am one. This is incredibly revolutionary to me, but perhaps it could work.
The academic work day will be a bit like my "day job". From 9 or 10 am-5 pm I will endeavour to do academia only. This is rather in fitting with my schedule anyway, so I have no reason not to. There ought to be a break for food in this day - something I often find myself neglecting. I may start making myself sandwiches to take with me about my day.
With the exception of Mondays and Thursdays, my "evening job" will start at 7 pm and end at 9 or 9.30 pm. This will be dedicated to writing and I will do it every weekday, except for Mondays and Thursdays, on which I am already obliged to do other things. To make up for it, I'll have a longer "evening job" on Wednesdays, when I'm completely free: I will work from 5 pm until 9 pm. On these days, for my sanity, I will have a shorter "day job": 9 or 10 am - 3 pm. The two hour break between the day job period and the evening job period is intended for afternoon eating, "dinner".
Finally, the late night reading will start about 10 pm to 12 am every night. The 30 minute to hour long break between this period and the end of the evening job is intended just as a limbo-space wind-down.
For the sake of breadth of reading, I'll try to make my morning reading periods and night reading periods different in content.
In addition to this, I must allow myself, after a fair trial, to abandon books that appear to me dull or likely to make me dread these reading periods. I will always give abandoned books a re-try at a later date to see if I've matured or simply changed, but I can never allow the reading periods to be sullied by an unenjoyable book.
In terms of food I must make sure to eat something upon waking, breakfast, around 7 am or 8 am then again at around 2 pm, then again at around 5 pm. Seeing as breakfast and dinner have the largest periods in between eating, they will have to be the largest meals. For breakfast I will have fruits and nuts and toast and tea: 2 bananas, an apple, peanuts, a slice of toast with peanut butter or jam, and tea. For lunch I will have a sandwich: I will get ideas for fillings from websites. For dinner, I will probably have fish and potatoes or bread and potatoes or bread and fish until I can bring myself to be more creative about cooking. The entire day will be continuously fuelled by caffeine.
This is for weekdays only. Weekends remain free.
I think this is a good disciplined schedule. Thinking about it in terms of work will certainly help prepare me for future life, too. I'm excited to begin this! I may even start tomorrow if I can bring myself to rise early despite the lack of sleep tonight. We'll see.
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