How do you spend your time?
 
I recently took some time to write down the list of the most important activities during my everyday life. It was needed just to understand a couple of things about my personal planning and by no means was intended to be a comprehensive list. But just ten minutes later and without any effort the list turned out to be a complete one. I wouldn’t say 100% complete, but I think that it represents the 95% of my time (sleeping not included). Give it a look:
 
  1. •software development
  2. •following newsgroups or mailing lists
  3. •reading blogs
  4. •reading technical articles online
  5. •listening programming podcasts
  6. •writing blog posts
  7. •twitting
  8. •attending user groups meetups
  9. •attending workshops, conferences
  10. •technical chatting
  11. •job search and interviewing
  12. •visas and working permit related issues
  13. •projects planning and organizing ideas
  14. •pure software development activities
  15. •music
  16. •jazz listening
  17. •watching jazz videos
  18. •piano practice
  19. •practice with the band
  20. •planning practices with the bands
  21. •planning concerts
  22. •attending concerts
  23. •playing at local jam sessions
  24. •photography
  25. •online buying and selling
  26. •photography meetups
  27. •learning from someone else's pictures
  28. •reading photography books
  29. •reading reviews on equipment
  30. •reading forums or articles
  31. •running
  32. •training sessions
  33. •reading books about running
  34. •planning for the next race
  35. •attending races
  36. •house keeping
  37. •washing machine
  38. •cooking
  39. •at the grocery store
  40. •cleaning
  41. •handling payments
  42. •people relationships
  43. •taking care of my family and my parents
  44. •contacting old friends
  45. •reading generic emails
  46. •general learning
  47. •watching news on tv
  48. •reading news online
  49. •searching for english words and idioms online
  50. •wikipedia-like search for people or facts
  51. •general entertainment
  52. •watching movies on tv
  53. •going to the movie theater
  54. •having dinner at the restaurant
  55. •going out with friend or colleagues
  56. •shopping
  57. •bike ride
  58. •take a walk outside
  59. •visiting museums, galleries
  60. •attending generic concerts or shows (not jazz)
  61. •visiting new places or neighborhoods
  62. •other
  63. •car repair and general handling
  64. •travel planning, best offers, cheap flights
  65. •handling shipments and mailing
  66. •online buy and sell of general articles
  67. •in transit
 
There is no particular order or implicit relevance. The only important thing is that the time spent on each of the item in the list builds up an average week. It makes me think. Here’s some thoughts:
 
  1. •Here I am. I’m a 58 items list. I’m surprised to see how fast the list went up. Somehow I was convinced that the number of items was huge or difficult to enumerate.
  2. •It looks pretty mechanical. There are many repetitions of the same action just transposed to a different context. This can be positive (optimization) or negative (lack of flexibility)
  3. •No “contemplating-the-window” kind of items. Everything is an action that involves mental or physical focus. There is nothing like “let your soul be your pilot” and see what happens.
  4. •I’m completely predictable. Just pick something from the list, there are no surprises or random behavior.
  5. •It’s stable. The fact that is comprehensive and I’m able to write it down fast means that this is routine. I hope it doesn’t mean it cannot change :)
  6. •Since I’m not able to do something else without dropping something from the list, it means that I deliberately chose to live without other things. Most important, there are things I will never know just because I chose to live without them.
 
Dear reader, it would be nice to hear from you on this. I’m a 58 items list, what about you? Is it easy to write it down? How our lists compare to each other? Please write it down on your blog and post the link as a comment here. I’ll be glad to read. Maybe you can convince me to drop off something from my rock-stable list. Do you know how you spend your time, don’t you?
Reblog Details
Tuesday, October 9, 2007

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