Ask HN: What does your typical Saturday look like?
How do you usually spend the first day of the weekend?
Sometimes I write in a cafe, other times at home. Other times I spend too much time fiddling with formatting and catching up on plotting that I waste the day and don't end up writing much at all.
Today, I woke up at 9am. Put on my sunscreen, made the bed, fed the cats. Took one of my cats out for a morning walk. It is autumn and it's beautiful outside, perfect for a chilly scenic walk. Then, I got home and made instant coffee. Now I'm in my office trying to write, but instead fiddling with my writing software and writing this comment. I hope I'll get there.
On the Saturdays when I don't have the house to myself, usually my boyfriend and I have been biking or walking to a cafe. Last Saturday we spent some time working on our laptops (writing in my case), and then watched several episodes of Rings of Power. These Saturdays are less planned for me because it also depends on what he wants to do. This is our first time trying to live together, and I'm still a little less comfortable with these Saturdays. I'm uncertain in my planning of the day: not wanting to waste our time together by just being lazy every weekend, but also not wanting to feel a bunch of pressure to plan some big outing or something.
On the Saturdays like this one, where I'm alone and either finished writing or given up on trying to write, I'll probably watch some YouTube or a show on HBO, basically laze around and relax. I also hope to do some reading in the evening, if I can manage to put away the laptop.
- Ice Bath and Sauna : I like to spend about 15-20 min in the 180°+F sauna and then about 1-5 min in the 40-60°F ice bath (temp. varies depending on how much ice I put in. 60 lbs. of ice usually can get it to 40°F)
- Swim a little bit
- Make some coffee : usually a basic Aeropress or Clever Dripper coffee with some grass-fed milk half and half / bulletproof style (blended with MCT oil and grass-fed butter)
- Go to the gym for about 1 hour : 1000 m. rowing, 10 min using weighted sled, stretching / mobility exercise, strength training (barbell, dumbbell, bodyweight - pull ups, chin ups, push ups)
- Shower, eat some breakfast (usually about 4-5 eggs or a chicken breast)
- Stretch, massage gun
- Nap
- Play some guitar
- Eat some lunch (ribeye steak and some greens)
- Chill out (watch some TV, do some light reading)
- Walk the dogs (usually around 1-2 miles or play some fetch)
- Dinner (chicken breast or salmon and greens)
- Bed
Usually my weekday routine is very similar - I work from home and do a bit more condescend combo of exercising my dogs, going to the gym, ice bath/swim/sauna during breaks from working
If it's an f1 weekend, I watch qualifying, otherwise I go for a hike or a walk around town and generally avoid my computer for the rest of the weekend.
For the past couple of hours I've been reading in A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger, and then watching this video "Inference: A Logical-Philosophical Perspective with Alexander Paseau"[1]. I'll hit the hay in another hour or so, then sleep till around 1:00 PM or so on Sat.
Once I wake up, I'll probably take a shower, get dressed, and drive over to the Barnes & Noble near my apartment. I'll sit there for 6 or 7 hours reading/studying/working and drinking coffee. Once I leave there I'll head home, grab a bite to eat, and then do something to relax for a little while. Watch a movie, or read some fiction. I'm reading Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan right now. Afterwards I'll jump back into research/work mode and put in a few more hours on something topical.
That would be a typical Sat. for me. One deviation from that pattern would be if I go for a mountain bike ride shortly after crawling out of bed, and delay going to the B&N cafe. Another would be if I decide to work on something that has a hardware element to it, to the point that I need to physically be at my lab bench. I have a project I'm working on that does sometimes require a bit of hands-on circuit building, soldering, physical fabrication, debugging with the oscilloscope, etc., so every now and then Sat. turns into my main time to knock out some of that stuff. Depending on how much time that takes I may or may not go out afterwards. The days that I don't go out after that tend to be days where I reserve the rest of the evening for relaxing. Take a long hot bath, read fiction, watch movies, etc.
In any case, during football season I try to be asleep by no later than about 3:00 AM on Sat night (Sun morning) so I can wake up to watch the Dolphins game (most of their games are 1:00 PM games, unless it's a road game to a West Coast team, or they have a prime time game that week).
2. Fencing (HEMA) in the park with my friends
3. Going to the zoo (or similar) with my family in the afternoon
4. Play with the kids while Mommy is cooking
5. Bring kids to bed (Mommy with baby currently)
6. Finally time to do more daddy stuff, practicing guitar, programming or play D&D online
7. Like to a Scifi audio book in the bed
8. Sleep