Four Women Share a Real “Day-in-the-Life”

If we really look at how we manage our various tasks every day , it’s probably not quite the pretty picture we’d like it to be. Our daily lives are a succession of triumphant wins , mini fails and emailing from the toilet.

As our own Adrianna says, “more often like the ups and downs of a seesaw than a constant juggling act.” But that doesn’t mean we’re unbalanced. It just means we each have our own unique strategies for getting stuff done.

To that end, four TueNighters jotted down a typical day, or summary of our typical wins and “fails” — in our own fashion, of course. Click the plus sign to read each person’s “day.”

Adrianna

BOO! Daughter standing next to my bed at 3 a.m. with wet pants and sad eyes. Time to clean up an “accident.”

YAY! 7 a.m., secretly reading the NYTimes app in bed on my phone surrounded by sleeping, hot-breathed girls — they’ve climbed in and nearly squished me off the bed but this is my favorite time of day.

BOO! We’re late for school and the library book has gone missing on library day. Again.

YAY! As long as we’re late anyway… chocolate croissants for breakfast!

BOO! Paid the bill on time, but good grief — daycare costs nearly as much as the mortgage. Plug ears, close eyes and sing “la la la.”

YAY!  9 a.m., time for work. No more corporate job! I work with artists now. Plan to think about “artistic” things.

BOO! Husband’s out of town, so all of the cooking and cleaning duties fall on my shoulders. Hello, dirty dishes.

YAY!  Since it’s an all girls night, we let table manners slip. The girls and I crack ourselves up eating meatballs and making funny faces.

TN156_adrianna_ani3

Margit

8:31 a.m. Look at email on iPhone.

8:35 a.m. Play Candy Crush until husband out of shower or my lives are gone, whichever comes first.

9:05 a.m. Stretch, exercise and meditate for exactly 3 minutes. Offer a few bits of gratitude and daily intentions. (“Please let me finish that power point. Amen.”)

9:10 a.m. Begin a cavalcade of distracting tasks: Read and respond to email on desktop, tweet, look at Facebook, pay a bill.

9:30 a.m. Spend 20 minutes debating an outfit. Give my hair a once-over in the mirror to decide if a shampoo is necessary. NOPE!

10:15 a.m. Head into my office. Stop at Smile to Go for another coffee. A delicious cafe, however they almost never smile.

11 a.m. Start working on EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE

2 p.m. Have not moved from chair. Pull up Seamless.com to order some Vietnamese chicken salad. Resume work.

2:45 p.m. A colleague kindly brings me my food which has been sitting at the front desk for 15 minutes. I still haven’t moved and still working.

4 p.m. Get a coffee at Starbucks where it is smelly and crowded.

4:15 p.m. Back to working and tweeting and calling and emailing and writing and editing and strategizing

7 p.m. Leave work. Train uptown to meet husband for dinner, although my phone died and I’m running 10 minutes late.

8:45 p.m. Take rain home with husband, nearly forgetting that our laundry is being delivered between 9-10pm.

9:10 p.m. Meet laundry guy at the door. He has been waiting for 10 minutes and gives me the stink eye.

9:30 p.m. GLASS OF WINE

10 p.m. Respond to emails while watching DVR of Downton Abbey.

11:30 p.m. Go to bed. Snuggle with hubs. Dream of a better life for Anna, Bates, the rest of the world and toss and turn 10 times per my FitBit.

TN156_margit_ani

Susan

Alarm goes off. Ugh. Three 10-minute snoozes later I am up.

Devour bowl of the same breakfast I eat every morning: Kashi Go Lean Crisp Cinnamon Crumble Cereal.

Settle down for my daily AA reading, followed by a 15-minute meditation.

Fall back asleep during meditation (doh!); jolt back up 30 minutes later.

On the clock for my morning at-home freelance gig, but I start work in my jammies and without a shower due to aforementioned accidental nap. During a slow period I shower FAST, check email, get dressed, check email, put on makeup, check email….

Foundation fingerprints all over my keyboard. Whoops.

Sign off from work and leave (on time!) for my therapy appointment. I am a rockstar!

But, I can’t find cell phone. I am NOT a rockstar.

Time spent looking for cellphone: About three minutes, until I remember I can use iCloud’s Find My Phone feature to locate it. I’m so resourceful!

Time spent trying to remember/look for iCloud password = 8 minutes. I’m so not resourceful.

Location of cellphone? The jacket pocket of the coat I was wearing. #MajorFail

Post therapy, work at Starbucks for two hours, spend half hour waiting for bathroom.

AA meeting at 6 p.m. Man I needed that.

Accidentally hop on an uptown train even though I’m in Manhattan and live in Brooklyn. Why do I ALWAYS do this? Transfer to downtown train, which is waiting for me right at the station. Thank you subway Gods.

Home, dinner, husband, a little more work, Jon Stewart, bed. Yawn, YAY.

TN156_susan_ani2

Kat

YAY! – Getting a load of laundry in while cleaning and thinking out design problems.

FAIL! – Forgetting to check all the pockets for tissues, whole load is covered in scraps.

YAY! – Brought out an old ipod shuffle to help make shoveling snow a little more fun.

FAIL! – Realizing towards the end it didn’t just unplug – it’s gone, it’s underneath the biggest pile, and it’s white. Eventually, I did find it.

YAY! – Making a healthy snack.

FAIL! – Putting the leftovers in a drawer, not the fridge.

YAY! – Remembering to set the alarm, busy day tomorrow.

FAIL! – Oh wait, 7 a.m. is only two hours away.

YAY! – Playing harmonica with an old friend on a stoop…feels as good as a long vacation.

TN156_kat_ani

 

Tell Us in the Comments

What do you think?

2 Responses

  1. Editor’s Note: Balance?!? | Tue Night

    […] We share our typical days filled with coffee and tweeting from the toilet. […]

    Reply
  2. Susan Linney
    Susan Linney

    Margit, your comment about Smile to Go reminds me of the time Andy and I were at a Friendly’s in who knows where and ALL of the waitstaff were so rude. I mean really bitchy. I couldn’t believe it! Rule #1 of Friendly’s — BE FRIENDLY.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.