Where I spend my time, revisited

Back in March 2010 I wrote up a post that detailed where I spend my time over the span of a week.

It was pretty rough; I didn't account for a lot of the minutia in my life like walking the dogs or grocery shopping or blogging. Still, I wanted to see where I was spending my time from a high level and get a clearer idea how much time I spent writing, reading, and doing some of the other things I like to do like exercising (cycling, running, weights; sometimes more of one, sometimes less).

I'm revisiting this now because something is about to change in my life that is going to greatly affect my time in a good way. No, I'm not quitting my day job. But I am getting a new one. One that allows me to work at home 99.8% of the time. In other words, I should be able to reclaim the 10 hours/week I currently spend commuting. I say "should" because I'm fairly certain there's going to be an intense ramping up period with this job (from the moment I received the offer I've been boning up on the base technologies I think I need to have a firm grasp of from Day 1). However, once I get settled in and have adequately dazzled my new boss and co-workers, I'll slow it down a bit and work a more normal 40-45 hour work week. That's when things get interesting from a writing perspective.

The numbers in that older post aren't entirely accurate anymore. Below is a more current breakdown based on today.

Day Job 40 24%
Commuting 10 6%
Exercise 10 6%
Writing 14 8%
Reading 8 5%
Fun Time 21.5 13%
Outside work 12 7%
Consulting 0 0%
Sleep 52.5 31%
TOTAL 168 100%

Here's where I expect my hours to fall once the initial "breaking in" period is over:

Day Job 45 27%
Commuting 0 0%
Exercise 10 6%
Writing 25 15%
Reading 9 5%
Fun Time 14.5 9%
Outside work 12 7%
Consulting 0 0%
Sleep 52.5 31%
TOTAL 168 100%

This is pretty rough. I don't, for example, count the time spent driving to and from bike trails since I'll be heading out occasionally to meet the wife for some single-track fun. Also, I lumped things like grocery shopping into 'Fun Time', because isn't grocery shopping and running other errands fun?

Consulting work has already gone to '0'. I quit doing that a while back.

Commuting time will go to '0' with only the occasional trip into the office. How 'occasional' remains to be seen, but I know the person I'll be working for from a previous position so I know when he says, "I don't care where you work", I know he means it. Also, the work-at-home arrangement is a company policy, not something I set up because I know the person. I consider it rock-solid.

I expect writing time to increase by around 11 hours to 25 hours/week. That doesn't seem like a lot, but considering I work a 'regular' job I think that's pretty darn good. 25 hours/week in terms of hours anyway is a legitimate part-time job. Too bad the pay is so crappy. :-(

All in all, I'm extremely excited about this new position. It's going to eliminate my the wasted time and frustration of a daily commute, the work is going to be intense but interesting, and, best of all, I'll have more time to spend writing.


Indulge in fantastic tales of sword, sorcery, and alchemy today by joining thousands of readers like yourself who can't get enough of Scott Marlowe's "intense" storytelling and "skillfully written" adventures. You'll get two free stories, The Hall of Riddles and The Assassin's Dilemma, plus an original short story set in my world delivered to you each and every month.

Where to Buy