It was a Twitter post recently. It was doing the rounds and getting lots of engagement. And I had ten bob worth to put in.
Now. I’m not saying I get everything done and that I’m super organised, but I do know that I am wasting a lot of my free time in front of the TV that I could be spending productively. Most of the time I do what I feel like doing, unless there is something that needs be done, and then I’ll do that. And that was always the problem.
The question was basically, how do people do it all? The job, the exercise, the 10k steps. All the house work, the personal grooming, looking after kids etc. And still get 8 hours sleep. It feels like propaganda.
But this is the trick. Its the difference between doing what you want, and want you feel like doing. I want to get fit, for example, I might even go so far as to say that I don’t want to sit on the sofa all night drinking wine, infact, I want to not sit on the sofa drinking wine. But. When it comes down to it, and I feel like drinking wine on the sofa all night, I do, even though I don’t want to. Crazy right. Non wonder there’s no time.
I had an epiphany a little while ago. You know how we all feel like we ought to bake our own bread? Its nicer and healthier. There’s nothing better than the aroma of freshly cooked bread filling the home. Its even a cliche of vendors selling their homes. And the taste. The taste of hot fresh bread, dripping in butter. And yet most of us settle for Warburtons Toasty loaf, with all of the preservatives and emulsifiers and who knows what else.
Well. I never cook bread because I don’t have the space for it. Bread is quite intense on the space when it comes to the kneading of it. I have work surfaces in the kitchen, sure, but they’re always cluttered. I simply can’t bake bread because the work surfaces are cluttered.
That was my epiphany. I had it all backwards.
My kitchen work surfaces are cluttered because I don’t bake bread. They don’t need to be uncluttered because I’m not using them for anything else. This was quite the eye opener. And now, with uncluttered surfaces, the path is cleared to delicious home made bread whenever I fancy it.
But how?
How do they do it all, they ask? They do this. They prioritise outcomes and prepare. This is actually one of Jordan Peterson’s twelve rules, to do what is meaningful, not what is expedient. Keeping surfaces clutter free means that they can be used for delicious home baked bread. Those that fit it all in do this sort of thing automatically.
Its not propaganda. I don’t doubt that there are some fibbers out there, who like to boast and exaggerate, indeed, I know many of them. But the silent super achievers aren’t that, and they aren’t built differently. They simply prioritise and organise their goals.
How do they do that? Let us break it down.
The question was basically, how do people do it all?
The job. The job is mandatory if that is how you put food on your table and a roof over your head. Its a whole segment of the 8-8-8 Rule.
The 8-8-8 Rule splits the day in to three. With eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours for leisure. Some will argue, rightly so, that the eight hours of work are sandwiched between an hour of commuting. And that the eight hours of work is actually ten, and this is fair. Not much you can do about that, but even if we’re driving, we can use some of that time, listening to an audio book maybe, or learning another language. Most of us have these on our list of things we’d do if we could only fit it in.
Next one. The exercise, the 10k steps. Ten thousand steps is less than five miles, or a hour and half of walking. Some of that we can fit in to the commute, some of it we can do in the job. The rest of it is a lunch time walk or an evening stroll. For a proper exercise regime, we’re looking at an hour session, with maybe fifteen minutes of travel, and we need to fit that in to 6-8 hours of leisure time. How we manage our other activities can help with that.
All the house work. Honestly, how long does it take to tidy a well organised home? We have a clean as you go policy in our household. If you make a mess, you tidy it up, as soon as possible. If you spot something out of place, you deal with it, you don’t leave it for others. Another household rule is that if you cook for yourself, you wash it up and put it away. If you cook for the house, someone else washes up, and someone else puts away. And we have a rota for that.
We have a rota for everything. We know who is cooking on what days, we know what they are cooking so that we can plan the shopping. We know who will wash up. We know what laundry is done on what day. We know what day we change the bedding. It takes away the drama and the stress. We all know where we are at. And we all know where everything is.
How long does it take to wipe down some surfaces, mop the floor, dust the paintings? With everyone pulling their weight it can all be done within an hour. And its only necessary once a week. This we leave for Saturday mornings. Along with the weekly shop.
I timed it once. The washing up, after a big Full English breakfast. There was the grill for the sausages and bacon and black pudding to wash up. There was a frying pan for the eggs. There was pan for the beans, the pan for the tomatoes. The pan for the garlic fried mushrooms There was the grill for the toast. There were serving bowls and utensils. There were plates and cutlery. There was the coffee pot. There were mugs. Washed and away in just over ten minutes. Who hasn’t got ten minutes?
The personal grooming. This varies from person to person. But I can be shaved, showered, dressed and ready to go within 15 minutes. Ironing is something you make time for, and it can be done while watching TV, listening to an audio book, or podcast, or even while completing the DuoLingo Daily Streak.
Looking after kids. This is a tricky one, but I’m a parent, I know what its like. But it falls within the pattern of organisation. Having kids doesn’t change the Rota. Whoever isn’t cooking watches the kids, whoever isn’t washing up watches the kids. And we tidy as we go. The toys spread across the house go back in the box. The soiled clothes go in the wash at the scheduled time. There are free slots in the laundry schedule for emergencies.
Et cetera. There were other things mentioned, like hobbies and pets. What does it take to feed and clean up after your pets? I suppose it depends on the pet. A gold fish will take less care than a hippopotamus. Hobbies though. What time do we have left on a weekday, after all the non negotiables are accounted for?
- Work + Commute 10 hours
- Sleep 8 hours
- Hygiene 0.5 hours
- Laundry 0.5 hours
- Cook/Eat/Washup 1 hour
- Exercise/Gym 1.5 hours
Thats 21.5 hours taken. That leaves 2.5 hours of free time, per day, for socialising, or hobbies. Thats twelve and a half hours a week, not including the weekend.
On Saturday, let’s say we allocate three hours to the scheduled weekly clean, the shopping, and ironing. Plus half hour for hygiene, and eight hours for sleep, there a still twelve and half hours free on the Saturday. And Sunday, we take eight hours sleep, half an hour for hygiene, and two hours for church. That leaves thirteen and a half waking hours on a Sunday to do whatever you want. Climb Helvellyn, visit the garden centre, write a book, visit family, bake bread, or even binge watch Netflix.
There is plenty of time to fit it all in. Its definitely not propaganda.
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