A Long Weekend in the Life

One of the questions I get asked the most (meaning perhaps twice) is how I find the time to do all of the bits and pieces I do. So, I thought I would answer that question in the form of one of my favourite kinds of posts to read, a week in the life. But, because most of my weekdays are the same, I’m going with a long weekend in the life Friday-Sunday.

 

FRIDAY

7:00

Aaaand we’re off. I wish I could bring myself to be more of a morning person and get up earlier than 7, but I’m just really not. I work my way through most of the things on my 8 things to do before 8am list I: have a glass of water, attempt to have a quick stretch, get dressed, wash my face, check my plan for the day, and then attempt to get excited about the day ahead. I don’t meditate on a morning anymore, I’m just not in the right mood on a morning and now prefer to do it on an evening.

7:48

I head to the tube to practice my contortion skills on the Victoria Line.

8:39

I arrive at work, slightly worse for wear but in one piece. I grab some breakfast, which consists of a very exciting bowl of Weetabix, banana and a cup of tea. Then I get down to business doing all of those workish things you do at work, aka answering loads of emails.

12:33

It’s lunch time! I normally eat my lunch (this week a homemade savoury muffin, some crudites and an apple) at my desk because it means I can read whatever looking interesting on my Bloglovin as I munch. Then I head out to a nearby park to read my book, this week I’m working on NW by Zadie Smith which is pretty good – we’ll see if it makes it as a future book club pick.

13:30

Back to work – more emails.

17:35

Time to get back on the tube and head home.

18:26

As soon as I get home 3 nights a week, as I did on Friday, I go for a run. Most nights I’ll do 4-5km depending on how much time I have and how lively I’m feeling – I managed just over 4 that night. When I get back I reheat some dinner, vegetarian chilli, which is one of my favourites.

19:40

This is the hour and a bit where I do blog, or other creative work. I put some music on (Little Comet’s new album) and get down to business.

21:01

When the clock strikes 9, it means it’s time for me to unwind. I wrote out my relaxation routine in a lot of depth in my post about unwinding, so I won’t write it out here. Basically, it involves a shower, my pjs and some trashy TV.

23:00

My favourite time of the day – bed time!

 

SATURDAY

8:05

Weekends I try to get up at around the same time, but quite often succumb to a lie in, as I did this weekend. But 8am isn’t too bad, right? Saturday mornings are my time for doing chores which means cleaning, laundry (lots of it), and going out to buy groceries.

11:36

I don’t really stick to proper meal times on a weekend in the way I do during the week. So this Saturday I stopped for a mid-morning soreen based snack, before doing a bit of blog work including some social media queueing and post designing.

15:45

It’s running time again! I went for a longer run on Saturday, which for me means 5km.

17:43

After showering and all pottering around, I head out for a dinner and a movie kind of evening.

 

SUNDAY

8:30

Sundays mornings are my lazy mornings which can mean anything from breakfast in bed, to just staying in my pjs or this week it meant getting to read my book on a morning.

10:11

This doesn’t happen every week but this Sunday was a brunch with friends kind of day. I can highly recommend the French toast at Nanna’s in Islington – sooooo good.

12:33

This is when I get down to business and do the most creative work, whether that’s for the blog, a client or myself. I always try and have some time on a Sunday to do it. This Sunday I managed to crank out 4 pieces of design a couple for the blog, one personal, and one draft for a client.

16:31

Time for another run, this time back to the same 4km route I did on Friday.

17:26

Sunday evenings are one of my favourite times because it’s when I get to meal prep. I love cooking. But I don’t have much time to do it during the week, so I like to make as much food for the week ahead, both lunches and dinners, on a weekend. My food prep usually contains a soup, a main meal (without the carbs if it’s pasta or rice because I like them fresh) and whatever I’m having for lunches, plus usually some kind of baking. This week I made a tomato soup, some thai green curry, a salad for lunches, and made some of my favourite pb energy bites.

20:34

Once all my work and the week is done I have a big pamper evening, which is just a longer version of my relaxation routine and normally includes a no work TV and biscuits binge.

 

And that’s my week! All of this can change depending on the week, but this is probably a pretty good overview. As you can probably see I don’t do that much and rely quite heavily on routine to give my week some structure because that’s just how I function best.

To circle right back round to the start of this post and the question “how do I fit everything in?” by making time for it, having a plan, and not doing much else aside from the things that I feel I want/need to do. It’s all about prioritisation I guess.

Natalie