Something's not adding up for me...even if you are working 10 hours a day, that means you are spending 5 hours commuting, exercising and eating? 1 hour commute each way, 2 hours exercise and 1 hour for eating?
07:15-08 Wakeup, shower and breakfast
08-09 Commute+reading
09-19 At work, includes lunch and snack
19-20 Exercise
20-20:30 Grocery shopping
20:30-21:30 Commute+reading
21:30-22 Dinner
22-23:30 Hacking
23:30 To sleep (slightly late)
How does that work out for you?
8:30 Wakeup, shower, breakfast
9:00-9:50 Browse the net, email
9:50-10:00 Walk to work
10:00-18:00 Work
18:00-20:00 Buy groceries, cook, eat, do dishes
20:00-21:30 Relax in some way. May include tv, movies, exercise. Sometimes extra hacking.
21:30-01:00 Hack (may include leftover work)Three years ago I had exactly the same 10 minute walk to work and then I did have more time available. However have to consider that:
1) Consultant usually works at client's location and client may change often, though I'm a counter-example of that myself. Moving often is not worth it. I consider my current location pretty optimal. A more central location creates more stress and costs way too much. I would believe it's more effective to just decide to work less hours every week for reduced pay but I'm not yet strong enough to commit to it :)
2) I do not spend any time travelling to shop, to exercise location or to do fun stuff. My travel time maximum is 2 hours every day - the shops, bars, movies, etc. are along the same route and do not increase time spent travelling in a day at all.
3) Car would not improve the situation. In fact it would be slower due to traffic. Or I would have to leave at 06 from home, way too early. And the tradeoff of money to time is ridiculous with so few other uses for a car. And there's the maintenance.
Thanks for the example. Maybe somebody else can chime in too.
Now, I don't exercise but I spend 2x30 minutes bicycling to and from work.
2) grocery shopping every day? Order it online or do it once a week (or both) - another daily half hour gained.
3) daily exercise is laudable, but maybe you don't need a whole hour every day. Half hour after waking up should be more than enough - unless you're doing weight lifting for muscle gain, in which case you should only go 3 times a week.
That's a couple of hours a day recovered there.
4 x 10 might be nice to have a longer weekend. Have to think about it since now 5 days are mostly spent working, exercising, eating and sleeping :)
2) Well that was an example day. Instead of the shopping it might be cleaning, cooking or other housework that takes half an hour to an hour. I shop two or three times a week. I also don't cook every day but cook for two or three days at a time.
I don't own a car, bike or skis because the maintenance would take time :)
3) I keep a rest day once a week and on weekends I might do two kinds of exercise in a day. Still 6-7 times a week is fine counting the occasional extra walk back from shop. That totals it to 6-10 hours a week on physical activity.
I don't spend any time going to exercise since all the equipment is either at work (gym, pool), at home (cross-trainer, weights) or I go running.
I guess I should add long commutes to my list of productivity hacks.
In the winter I mostly slept/meditated in the bus but now I have enough energy to read. I found out that coding is practically impossible in the bus because of the sun.