I eventually found that if I rose between 6.30 and 7.00 I had time to edit the previous day’s work for an hour before taking my daughter to school. I’d then write for another few hours, finally taking a break around midday. That would be the time I’d do the things I’d need to do around the house, walk to the shops to pick up the few items I needed for the day, then do some editing for an hour or so before 4pm when my daughter arrived home. After that I spent time with her then cooked dinner. While she was working on homework I went back to writing from about 7pm - 11pm.

Of course it’s different now as my daughter left home some time ago. On weekends I still follow the same routine. I work at whatever I’m working on (writing or study) between 7am and midday and 7pm and 11pm. The time I used to spend with her I now spending lazing around, usually reading.

It suits me perfectly. The only thing I don’t like is that my preferred exercise time is in the middle of the day - not a good thing when this state has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. I wear sunscreen every day all year, spf sunglasses and have a 50spf umbrella (hats don’t cover enough) but it still doesn’t seem enough. Ten minutes in the sun and I can feel my skin cooking, it’s so hot.

I just hope, with all this dreaming and planning, by the time we’re all able to actually live our perfect days, our joints move freely enough to allow it to happen!

Lots of stuff to ponder here. I certainly would have the same outlook on exercise as you and you bring up an interesting point about personality changes. I told myself for years that I would start to exercise and lose weight only to find myself never doing it. I was up to 198, a good 40 pounds over what I think I should be and it still didn’t motivate me despite feeling uncomfortable. But then I bought an active dog and started walking him because, simply, I wanted him to have a good life that made up for the times we would have to kennel him during work, etc. Just walking him 2-3 times a day caused me to lose 23 pounds in a couple of months. Over these winter months I decreased the walking but thankfully have only gained back about 7 or 8 pounds. Now that spring is here I am feeling the itch to get back out there. My point is that my motivation came from a completely unexpected source. I don’t know the magic key to unlocking that motivational source, but I believe if it is to be achieved it at least has to start with something better than deluding ourselves that we are going to change bad habits.

I’m very much a night owl and I think a lot of that has to do with this feeling inside that by going to bed early I am cheating myself out of life…out of living! If I was retired I would hope that I would be better about going to bed earlier as I generally don’t ever sleep in. Maybe one Saturday a month I’ll crash and sleep until 10:30 or 11 but chances are if I do that I’m still only getting 8 hours because of the time I went to bed. And the older I get the more I’m feeling these 5 or 6 hour sleep nights, believe me.

I know my perfect routine would include getting up early and exercising as well. I would want to incorporate some days where I then had a healthy breakfast out at some little dive or deli or bagel shop that I liked. Other days, the nice ones, I’d want to sit out on the deck and eat breakfast. I have a desire to write as well and RusVW (link in my blog links) posted about Morning Pages a little while back and it is a writing exercise that I would like to incorporate (now, not when I retire).

If I could afford not to work I would want to take art classes and computer classes (Photoshop, etc) and learn more about the techniques and technology that would allow me to do more artistically than just talk about it. I’d also want to do some volunteer work or work somewhere that I felt I was doing something I loved despite the pay. Working at a library or bookstore would be heavenly as would having a regular weekly volunteering gig.

I’d probably want to plan a schedule to minimize my tv veg time. I’d want to go to the movies more and travel more for sure. Again all that depends on finances. I would certainly want to live simply on a day to day basis and just enjoy the heck out of each day.

So of course the crux of all this James is that both you and I, and everyone else, needs to start living this life now. At least as much of it as is realistic within the confines of the working lives we lead now.

How we go about doing this is the hard part…

Jim

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