A Day in the Life of... Me.
Quite often I get asked a question that I find harder and harder to answer. What do you do?
What do I do? I do a lot. I am a physical therapist, I lead the November Project in San Diego, I am the lululemon La Jolla run ambassador, and I own a running training and coaching business. Oh, and on the side I am training for the Boston Marathon, attempting to be a yogi, and building a healthy and loving relationship and set of friendships.
The follow-up question is typically regarding how I find time to do all of those things.
I understand that question, as I'm typing this I am realizing that I wonder that myself sometimes.
So I present to you, A Day in the Life of…Me.
This isn't a fictional day. This is Monday, December 15, 2014. This isn't just the good habits that people like Tony Robbins and Tim Ferriss** would be proud of. This is the good, the bad, and the strangely productive.
(**if you don't know who these two people are, look them up now then finish reading this blog.)
5:00 AM - alarm #1. Hit snooze, sleep until 5:07AM. Have to get up to take the boyfriend to catch his ride back up to LA. Roll over, immediately spend 5 minutes checking Facebook and Instagram. <- This is a bad habit, in case you were wondering. Bathroom, eat half a Bobo's Oat Bar, fill water bottle with Nuun Energy (that caffeine is going to be nice).
5:32 AM - leave house, drop off boyfriend, head straight to Convention Center stairs since I'm already downtown. Spend next 20 or so minutes reading/responding to emails and hoping that pictures from #TheGathering are somewhere on social media. They aren't.
6:00 AM - head up to stairs early. Chat, hug, find out about everyone's weekend, direct traffic to back side of stairs, get excited when new people show up, mentally prepare myself to push hard during the workout and during my post NP run.
6:31 AM - get to back of stairs with late people (you know who you are). Quickly realize my legs are sore. Push as hard as possible anyway. Spend a few minutes tagging visitor's shirts and chatting after the workout. Check watch and decide to run even though I'm sore. Cut 7.5 miles of speed work down to 5.5 miles of easy pick-ups to shake out legs from Saturday. Use run time to mentally relax and prepare for week.
8:45 AM - realize I forgot to drop off paperwork at office, swing by after run. Feel weird walking in very sweaty. Head back home to shower and go for the day. Oh and to put workouts on Strava, cause if it's not on Strava it didn't happen.
9:51 AM - running late for work (traffic on the 52). Scarf down rice cakes, 5150 Nut Butter (not the healthy kind, Chocolate Biscuit <- this also probably wasn't an ideal decision), and raisins. Make coffee (bulletproof <- this was a great decision), take an Onnit Alpha Brain. Head out the door.
10:11 AM - 2:15 PM - work for home health physical therapy company. See 4 patients. Don't answer any emails during day (my email settings are so that it only comes in every hour, cuts down on the time I spend reading email or deleting junk email). Obsessively check social media for November Project updates/photos and Mtn Hobo pictures between patients. That damn bad habit again. Call mom on bluetooth between patients to catch up and plan trip home in January. <- good use of otherwise wasted driving time. Manage to only do half of my paperwork.
2:16 PM - immediately change out of scrubs. 2 reasons: they are gross, and I can focus better on my business when I switch into athletic clothes.
2:20 PM - eat pistachios prior to going to Sprouts and Trader Joes, because grocery shopping hungry is a bad decision. Come home with ALL HEALTHY FOOD! This is a win for me as nutrition is one of the more difficult aspects of my life to control. Celebrate by eating crackers and hummus and also realize I'm starving and haven't really eaten since breakfast.
3:00 - 6:00 PM - buckle down to check off some to-do list items: finish all of day's paperwork, call patient for next day to schedule, email lululemon yoga ambassadors about January event #BodiesInMotion (stay tuned, this is going to be awesome), put together local activity and event calendar for lululemon La Jolla and email it off, confirm meeting time with Eric at HP Movement for Wednesday, speak with and give feedback to former NPSD tribe member who is going to pledge a new NP tribe, follow up with a good friend who is training for a marathon to try to schedule a run date. DO NOT check social media.
6:05 PM - hungry. Eat dinner (leftover Allie-made squash/sweet potato/carrot soup and grilled cheese). Check Facebook and Instagram. "Like" photos, read NP blog, work on building social media presence (this is a topic for a future blog). Spend too long doing this. Look for yoga Groupons/deals for my upcoming #30before30 yoga challenge.
7:00 - 9:00 PM - contemplate doing some more work, realize I only have 1 home health PT patient the next day and save work for tomorrow. Instead decide to focus on house, as the lack of cleanliness and order recently has been a source of stress. Clean kitchen, re-organize storage closet, re-organize bedroom closet, sort through randomly collected NP gear and items, de-clutter "stuff" that have accumulated but I don't use. Mentally spend this time daydreaming about the exciting things happening in my personal life in the near future. Feel much calmer after finishing. <- this was an excellent decision and use of time.
9:02 - 9:47 PM - write out to-do list for the next day (I keep a long weekly to-do list that I add to throughout the week, but daily I pick 3-4 big items to accomplish), get sucked into social media again (seeing a pattern yet?) looking at pictures from #TheGathering, take an Onnit New Mood (Onnit - also another future blog topic), set my alarm for 6:15 AM (Tuesdays I sleep in), and fall asleep.
Phew.
Rehashing a day can bring some serious clarity. There are many things that I do well that set my days up for success. And there are quite a few non-productive habits that I am working on changing.
Let's assess.
The Good - scheduling the day, writing out to-do lists and narrowing them down to specific goals for that day, utilizing otherwise "down" time to accomplish small tasks, making mental time for myself (on this day during my run and cleaning the house), and getting enough sleep.
The Bad - SOCIAL MEDIA is my biggest downfall, not planning meals in advance (your brain makes so many small and large decisions every day and it can get choice fatigue, eliminate the opportunity to make bad nutritional choices by deciding what your meals will be in advance, then no decisions are needed), and hitting snooze (even for 7 minutes).
The Strange, but Productive - changing clothes immediately after work (definitely helps me mentally switch gears to the next task) and cleaning the house (may not seem ultra-productive in the moment, but sets up mental clarity and productivity for the following days).
So what is the take home message on how to get it all done? There are a few.
Be smart on what you choose to take on, how you choose to fit it into your life, and know that it is all about prioritizing and maximizing time. There IS enough time, you just have to find it.
Self assess on a regular basis and then don't sugarcoat it. If you let your bad habits off the hook, they will continue to get worse. Make effort to acknowledge and change them.
Make time for yourself each day (mental or physical). Daydream, plan, talk to loved ones, breathe.
There are some aspects of life that are mandatory, but choose to fill the majority of your life with things that excite you and that you are passionate about and all of the hard work will be worth it. Think of each day as an investment into the future. Build what you want to receive.
