LookingForMoreTime

[merrijoy]

I don't know why, but I struggle to get everything I want to get done in a day.

The things I would love to do are (in time order):

Work, go to lunch, Workout, Read, educate myself (ie do some extra programming), cook, laundry, playing with the dog, reading blogs/PS etc, cleaning, amorous activity with DH

and maybe watch some tv (although I think there is nothing good on anymore

).

Here is what I get done:

Work and a little laundry. I barely have time to workout anymore. I can play with the dog, but again does not feel like much time. DH and I get home at about 7:15 pm. (we both leave for work at about 8:15 am). When we get home, by the time we change, walk the dog, do some bills - we can't even start cooking dinner before 8 pm. We eat at 8:30 - 9 pm. I do laundry almost everynight, going to sleep around 11:30 pm....I have no time! (pulling out hair icon).....what gives here? How do you get it all done (for those that work outside the home).
What is your travel time? How many hours do you work per day? What time do you all get home for work? For those that post at work - how much of your work day does this take up? (how much time do you spend reading threads, etc, and how long does it take to write a typlical post?) I look at Facebook, the Nest, PS - it just seems you all and all of those folks have so much time (I can barely read the posts, let alone post - I really feel like I have less time than everyone else - boo

. I really don't think I will ever have time for kids either.....

Please don't tell me I just do (get it done). I get it, you do, but hooooow? . please? LOL. and thank you.

If you can commiserate, please feel free to chime in too.....

Sincerely, LookingForMoreTime.

 

[kama_s]

Sounds like laundry is a big issue, since you''ve mentioned it thrice in your post! We only do laundry once every week, sometimes even once every fortnight! Can you try and do laundry once a week instead of everyday? That should free up atleast 30 minutes a day for you.

Also, your work hours eat up most of your day. 11 hours a day, door-to-door doesnt leave you much time for anything else. I''m curious to know what your regular work hours are?

 

[merrijoy]

Date: 11/17/2009 8:55:20 PM
Author: kama_s
Sounds like laundry is a big issue, since you've mentioned it thrice in your post! We only do laundry once every week, sometimes even once every fortnight! Can you try and do laundry once a week instead of everyday? That should free up atleast 30 minutes a day for you.

Also, your work hours eat up most of your day. 11 hours a day, door-to-door doesnt leave you much time for anything else. I'm curious to know what your regular work hours are?

9 am - 6 pm. By the time I get out of my parking garage it is 6:15 pm. Takes about 1 hour to get and from work (each way).

Is everyone elses' working hours less?

 

[sparklyheart]

I''m confused about the laundry too.. What are you washing everyday?? And what bills are you paying everyday? It sounds like you guys like walking the dog together.. but what if one of you walked the dog while the other one cooked dinner? That way you could sit down to dinner and have that time together but not be as stressed about getting everything done. Have you thought about spending Sunday afternoon cooking a bunch of food for the week? That way you could both walk the dog and get your exercise then just come home and heat up whatever you want that night.

I am in school so my schedule is all over the place.. if I work, I leave at 6am and get home at 8:15pm.. so I eat dinner, watch tv, play with my dogs, and go to sleep. When I have class or clinicals I just come home, make dinner, clean or study (usually clean!), and play with the dogs. I usually do laundry on one of my days off.. or if I don''t have a day off, I throw laundry in when I wake up in the morning and then put it in the dryer right before leaving. I pay most of my bills online so when I get the email about it, I just go pay it.

Maybe try picking one day a week to do each thing.. For example, do laundry on Saturday, cook on Sunday, pay bills monday, clean two rooms tuesday, clean two more wednesday, etc. It probably wouldn''t be like that every week, but maybe just to get you into some sort of routine where you aren''t having to stay up so late every night. I hate feeling like I have no time

Good luck getting things in order!

 

[KimberlyH]

My schedule is different every day. Some days I am gone by 6:45 home by 2:45, some days I''m gone at 7:15 home at 7:30, some days I don''t work at all (lucky me, I know). I do laundry once a week (every night is a lot, I''d pick a day and make it laundry day and be done), sometimes if I''m lazy it spills into two days. We share cooking, my husband works from home so he does the majority of it. He also does most of the cleaning as he is home and can take a break, wipe down the kitchen and head back to his office. When I worked longer, more consistent hours my schedule was something like:

6:45 Leave for work
8-5 Work
6:00-7:30 home/dinner/dishes
7:30-8:15 exercise (I had an elliptical in my living room, we could watch TV while I exercised or we''d go for a walk or I''d go for a jog by myself)
8:15-8:30 shower
8:30-10:00 relax
10:00 bed

All heavy cleaning and laundry got done on the weekends.

 

[merrijoy]

Date: 11/17/2009 10:17:23 PM
Author: KimberlyH
My schedule is different every day. Some days I am gone by 6:45 home by 2:45, some days I'm gone at 7:15 home at 7:30, some days I don't work at all (lucky me, I know). I do laundry once a week (every night is a lot, I'd pick a day and make it laundry day and be done), sometimes if I'm lazy it spills into two days. We share cooking, my husband works from home so he does the majority of it. He also does most of the cleaning as he is home and can take a break, wipe down the kitchen and head back to his office. When I worked longer, more consistent hours my schedule was something like:

6:45 Leave for work
8-5 Work
6:00-7:30 home/dinner/dishes
7:30-8:15 exercise (I had an elliptical in my living room, we could watch TV while I exercised or we'd go for a walk or I'd go for a jog by myself)
8:15-8:30 shower
8:30-10:00 relax
10:00 bed

All heavy cleaning and laundry got done on the weekends.

Where does PS/Facebook fit here? Oh, doh, I guess in the relax....How much time in your day do you guys get to hang out here?

As for the laundry, I hate having dirty clothes in hampers for extended periods of time. Soooo, if there are a few towels and a few whites...Well, I throw it in...same with a few darks....I did whites/towels last night, darks tonight...probably do another load (whites) on Thursday, then sheets and stuff on Sat and darks on Sunday's...so 6 - 7 loads a week (and this does not mean I am putting it all away nightly - just throwing it in - probably takes 5 minutes total)

As for the bills, it is not necessarily bills, but money tracking spreadsheet that my DH works on.....

 

[Haven]

I taught full-time until this school year, now I teach part-time.

This was my typical full-time schedule. I ended up staying at work until 6:30 or later a couple nights a week because I coached the Speech Team.

5 AM--Wake up, walk the pup for a half hour, shower.
6:30 AM--Leave for work
7:05 AM--Arrive at work
5:30 PM--Leave work
5:45 PM--Exercise at gym on way home from work
6:45 PM--Arrive home, walk dog for 30 mins, go through mail, pay and file bills
7:30 PM--Make dinner, eat dinner, hang out with DH, TV, record the day''s receipts in my money spreadsheet
9 PM--Lesson plan for tomorrow, research, grade papers, return parent emails, paperwork, etc. for work.
11 PM--Walk dog for 15 to 20 mins.
11:30 to midnight--Off to bed. Read 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how exhausted I am.

Laundry--I only do this on the weekends. I only do full loads because I feel irresponsible wasting water on smaller loads. I feel strongly about this so I''m strict about this.

Cleaning--We typically end up cleaning around the house and working on the outside of the house on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

PS--I went on PS while I was at my desk at work and wanted a break from whatever I was doing. If I''m on a computer I usually take a break every 20 minutes from what I''m doing and surf the web for five minutes or so, and leave a post here and there. The nature of my job requires a lot of work on the computer to create plans, do research, and answer emails, so there''s a lot of time to drop in to PS for five minutes here and there.
I don''t spend much if any time on any other websites. Well, I like to look at Cuteoverload.com for a minute or two every day.

For me the big thing is planning ahead. If you want to work out on the way home from work, you''re more likely to do so if you pack your gym bag the night before and put it in your car. Same thing goes for cooking meals. I''d plan our weekly meals out on Sunday and buy all of the non-perishables I''ll need for the entire week on Sunday, as well as the fresh produce and other perishables for Monday and Tuesday. Then on Wednesday all I''d need to do is swing by the grocery store and pick up a few pieces of fresh produce or meat for Weds and Thurs. Fridays we''d either eat leftovers, order in, or go out.

Could you try working in one more thing every day? Before we adopted our pup we were really concerned about whether we''d be able to exercise her as much as she needed. We really wanted to be responsible dog owners, and that meant multiple long walks a day, and we felt like our schedules were so full already. Yet, we did it. I woke up earlier, DH scheduled clients with a break in the afternoons so he could come home and take her for a long walk, and over time it''s just become a part of the routine.

 

[Lynnie]

Aw, merri, I feel you! Sometimes I feel like there''s not enough time in a day!

I work night shift, 7p-7a, but only 3 nights a week. I try to schedule myself for 3 nights in a row. But then for those 3 nights I have pretty much no home time. I don''t clean, cook, do laundry or really even see my hubby for those 3 days. I''ll post on PS when I get home from work (like now). I usually get 6 hours sleep max each of those 3 days. But then I''m off for a few days. Sometimes it''s easy to flip my schedule back to days, sometimes - not so easy.

Maybe you could save Sundays for laundry, and maybe pre-make some meals? Or hire a neighborhood kid to walk the dog - maybe just a night or two a week?

My travel time is about 40 minutes. I love that I can bunch all my work nights together - like, work Tue/Wed/Thur, then off Fri, then work Sat/Sun/Mon - then not have work til the following Tue/Wed/Thur. But it''s a give and take - like, I have NO life for a week, then have a week totally off, and I can catch up on things.

 

[elrohwen]

Here was my schedule when I was working:

6:15am - wake up
7:15am - leave for work
8:00am - arrive at work
5:00pm - leave work
5:10pm-6:10pm - gym (when I was actually doing to the gym)
7:00pm - get home
7:00pm-8:00pm - make dinner, eat, dishes
8:00pm-9:30pm - hang out, watch tv, go on PS, etc
9:30pm - head up to bed, read for 20-30min
10:00pm - go to sleep

I have to ask - why are you doing laundry every day? Especially without kids? DH and I do laundry once a week, on the weekends, and it usually takes 1-2 loads to do everything (we just throw a load in and switch it to the drier when it''s convenient; we don''t schedule the day around it).

I also agree with the others to cook a lot on the weekend and heat up left overs. My mom always did this growing up and it worked out great! And I agree with other suggestions that you and hubby can split up the dog walking and cooking duties so that they get done at the same time.

I also tried to not have too much to do on work nights. DH often plays sports after work and gets home late, and I was often traveling, so we didn''t really schedule week night time for doing things other than eating dinner and relaxing. We save the weekends for really doing those extra things we wanted to do.

 

[lilyfoot]

Everyone else has offered great suggestions. How about cooking more meals in a crock-pot? Set it up in the morning, and it's ready when you get home. Or figure out more one-pan meals (casseroles, etc.)

Also, I know a lot of us are one here alot because we access it at work (I'm at work right now!)

What type of work out are you wanting to do? Walking or running with your dog could be your cardio.

Cleaning and laundry should really only need to be done once a week. I live with my BF, we have 3 dogs, and really the only thing that we do more than once a week in regard to cleaning is vaccuming (dog hair), and of course I wipe down the kitchen after cooking.

Why is your hubby using a money spreadsheet tracking your money everyday (it doesn't even sound like you guys have time to spend any money besides paying bills!). This looks like one area that can use improvement as well. Do you have a budget set up?

ETA: My work hours are 8:30-4:30. BF works irregular times (retail). My commute is 20-30 minutes each way, his commute is 5 minutes each way.

 

[stephbolt]

Leave for work 7:30
Work 8-5
Drive home 5-5:45
Gym (right near house) 5:45-6:45
FI and I usually get home around the same time - 7
FI works out while I get dinner together - 7-7:45 This is also when I get some other little chores done like paying bills, scooping litterboxes, unloading dishwasher, etc. FI cleans up the kitchen and packs our leftovers for lunch the next day.
8-10:30/11 - eat dinner, watch TV, talk, work on wedding stuff, play on our computers, occasionally meet up with friends.

Like many others have mentioned, most of the big cleaning/laundry/household projects get saved for the weekend. I keep a separate laundry basket for my towels because I don''t want them to make the rest of the laundry musty.

We plan out our meals every Sunday before grocery shopping so that we don''t spend time figuring out what we want to make, and we lean towards meals that do not require a lot of prep.

I never want to steer people away from a financial system that is working for them, but FI and I adore mint.com - I spend maybe 5 min a day checking in on our transactions there.

Good luck and I hope you find a system that lets you have some more time for your to pursue some of your interests!

 

[Haven]

Date: 11/18/2009 10:37:19 AM
Author: lilyfoot
Why is your hubby using a money spreadsheet tracking your money everyday (it doesn''t even sound like you guys have time to spend any money besides paying bills!). This looks like one area that can use improvement as well. Do you have a budget set up?

We track every single penny that we spend on a spreadsheet. We also have a budget and a very organized system for tracking our bills.
I can''t answer for merri, but we find that we spend far less on unnecessary items now that we track everything, and we like to be able to see where we can cut costs by taking a look at what we spent at the end of every month.

I know everyone always thinks they don''t waste a lot of money, but you wouldn''t believe how much you might actually be spending once you really track every penny. We were shocked when we started tracking, I highly recommend it.

Doing this takes only five minutes a day at most, so it''s not really a time waster.

 

[lilyfoot]

Date: 11/18/2009 2:38:56 PM
Author: Haven

Date: 11/18/2009 10:37:19 AM
Author: lilyfoot
Why is your hubby using a money spreadsheet tracking your money everyday (it doesn't even sound like you guys have time to spend any money besides paying bills!). This looks like one area that can use improvement as well. Do you have a budget set up?

We track every single penny that we spend on a spreadsheet. We also have a budget and a very organized system for tracking our bills.
I can't answer for merri, but we find that we spend far less on unnecessary items now that we track everything, and we like to be able to see where we can cut costs by taking a look at what we spent at the end of every month.

I know everyone always thinks they don't waste a lot of money, but you wouldn't believe how much you might actually be spending once you really track every penny. We were shocked when we started tracking, I highly recommend it.

Doing this takes only five minutes a day at most, so it's not really a time waster.

Oh gosh, I wrote this whole long post and the computer ate it.

Hi Haven

The main points of my long post were:

1. We are very organized with our money, and have a great system set up.

2. I agree every household needs to have a budget/tracking system in place.

3. I was just trying to point out to OP that there may be more time efficient ways to handle this. She listed it as a time-consuming activity, and is asking for ideas on how to make more time in her day. I wasn't saying they shouldn't track their money!

Edited for typo

 

[Haven]

Hi, Lilyfoot!

I understood your post, no worries. You asked Merri *why* her husband tracked their expenses, and since tracking our expenses has helped us reduce huge costs I figured I''d chime in with my own unsolicited information.

I agree that if it''s taking a ton of time then there are definitely easier ways to track spending, and it''s totally an area they should look into if that''s the case.

I love your name, it always reminds me of a fairy tale story.

 

[radiantquest]

7:45 get up, shower, etc''
8:45-9:00 leave for work
10:00 begin work
8:00 leave work
9:00 get home relax, talk to DH, etc
11:00 bed

Now I do most of my PSing at work. I sit at a desk and wait for something to happen so I have loads of time.
My schedule is only like this 3 days a week, but it seems like eternity.

Mondays it is either 9-3 or 3-9
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are like the above day that I laid out
Friday OFF WOOHOO
Saturday 10-5
Sunday OFF

DH does the cooking and will do dished sometimes. I usually spend Friday cleaning and doing laundry. Last week there were 4 loads. I couldn''t believe it. Anyway, I do it that way and then Sunday we can relax together or visit friends or family or whatever.

 

[zoebartlett]

Date: 11/17/2009 8:08:03 PM
Author:merrijoy
I don''t know why, but I struggle to get everything I want to get done in a day.


The things I would love to do are (in time order):


Work, go to lunch, Workout, Read, educate myself (ie do some extra programming), cook, laundry, playing with the dog, reading blogs/PS etc, cleaning, amorous activity with DH

and maybe watch some tv (although I think there is nothing good on anymore

).


Here is what I get done:


Work and a little laundry. I barely have time to workout anymore. I can play with the dog, but again does not feel like much time. DH and I get home at about 7:15 pm. (we both leave for work at about 8:15 am). When we get home, by the time we change, walk the dog, do some bills - we can''t even start cooking dinner before 8 pm. We eat at 8:30 - 9 pm. I do laundry almost everynight, going to sleep around 11:30 pm....I have no time! (pulling out hair icon).....what gives here? How do you get it all done (for those that work outside the home).

What is your travel time? How many hours do you work per day? What time do you all get home for work? For those that post at work - how much of your work day does this take up? (how much time do you spend reading threads, etc, and how long does it take to write a typlical post?) I look at Facebook, the Nest, PS - it just seems you all and all of those folks have so much time (I can barely read the posts, let alone post - I really feel like I have less time than everyone else - boo

. I really don''t think I will ever have time for kids either.....


Please don''t tell me I just do (get it done). I get it, you do, but hooooow? . please? LOL. and thank you.


If you can commiserate, please feel free to chime in too.....


Sincerely, LookingForMoreTime.

My short answer: I try to multi-task as much as possible. For example, I''ll try to get a little housework done before leaving for work, I''ll clean as I''m watching TV in the afternoon, I clean up as I cook, etc.

My longer answer: I''m currently looking for a new job but typically my schedule looks like this (M-F):

5:15 -- up for the day (I usually have enough time before I leave for work to throw a load of laundry in the washer and do a load of dishes if that needs to be done too)
7-3:30 or 4 (roughly these hours) -- prep for the day and teach
~4:30 -- when I get home (depending on what my commute is like -- it''s been 30 minutes until I left my job), I''ll switch the laundry to the dryer, and unload the dishwasher, and do other light chores.
Dinner around 6:30-7:00 usually
Hang out with my husband until 9:00
9:00 -- Go to bed and either watch TV or read
10:00 -- lights off

I leave the bigger chores such as deep cleaning, vacuuming, grocery shopping, etc. for the weekend. I usually save big loads of laundry for the weekends also.

 

[lilyfoot]

Date: 11/18/2009 4:20:05 PM
Author: Haven
Hi, Lilyfoot!

I understood your post, no worries. You asked Merri *why* her husband tracked their expenses, and since tracking our expenses has helped us reduce huge costs I figured I''d chime in with my own unsolicited information.

I agree that if it''s taking a ton of time then there are definitely easier ways to track spending, and it''s totally an area they should look into if that''s the case.

I love your name, it always reminds me of a fairy tale story.

Thank you