Cleanup today. Weekend slipping away.

[cjsmith]

I have lots and lots to do around the house today.

Every weekend, I start out with loads of energy, excited about how much I can get done in the two short days I have before I have to go back to work. Yesterday was no exception to this. I crossed a lot of things off my list yesterday. Dishes, laundry, sweeping up, a new ISP for my domain, a bottle of wine ordered from the winery on behalf of my mom, a Craigslist "free" post, new license plates finally attached to the car... stuff.

Now it's Sunday morning, and reality is sinking in. The list is too long for the time remaining. It always is. I'm no longer excited. Now I'm just working against a deadline.

I hate that my life is always right on the edge of being completely out of control because a full-time job takes so much time and energy. When I come home in the evening, I read a book, because that's all I'm good for. The weekends are gold. That's when I can really make a difference.

Lots to do before bedtime, and no staying up late either. Wish me luck.

Comments

[platypus]

Working full time makes it very difficult to have a life, or a clean house. I don't know how people do it. I know people who work twelve hours a day at their software jobs, and still go to book clubs and stuff. Me, I put in eight little hours and then I have to make dinner? I can't even bother to download a picture from my camera every day. I haven't vacuumed in months. I keep trying to go to the "just do something useful for fifteen mintues" model, but I can't even stick to that. I'm increasingly tempted by the 4/10 schedule that my new supervisor dangled in front of me; how much tireder could two extra hours a day make me? And then I'd have a three-day weekend, and I might actually get something accomplished and still have time for fun things. I may need to restrict my internet time -- I suspect that's where most of my evenings go. There's very little TV, and I don't write all the entries floating around in my mind, but random websurfing? I do a hell of a lot of that.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Then there's the people who work full time and raise children. Man, I'd consider raising children if I didn't also need an income. Maybe I'm just getting old. (And crippled, thus far less fit.) My energy levels are NOT what they once were.

The fifteen minutes idea is great for jobs that can be done, or at least improved, in fifteen minute chunks. Some jobs take fifteen minutes just to set up. Sewing, f'rex. Man, do I have sewing projects waiting for me! Weekends are too valuable and rare to "waste" on something that doesn't ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO get done.

If you take the 4/10 schedule, can you switch back if you hate it? Me, I'd be VERY tempted to try it.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

I once worked what we used to call a 4/40 schedule (forty hours in four days, ten hours a day, same as 4/10) and I loved it. For the first two weeks or so I was really tired at the end of each day, but the 3-day weekend perked me up. Once I got used to the 10-hour days, they didn't really feel any longer than the 8-hour days used to, so the permanent 3-day weekends seemed like a free bonus. Plus, since I had a very long commute, I had an extra bonus of 3 additional hours in the day on Fridays!

It reduced stress tremendously -- partly because of the 20% reduction in commuting, but more because I had peace of mind when scheduling appointments with doctors, dentists, car mechanics, etc., etc., since I didn't have to try to figure out what would be happening at work a week or a month from now, and whether I'd be able to be out of the office then. Shopping was much less onerous on Fridays when the stores were less crowded. I could take "long weekend" vacations on non-holiday weekends when others weren't traveling. When I got married I loved having the house all to myself one day each week. I could get the chores out of the way and be able to relax on the "regular" weekend -- or I could make it a personal day just for myself, without having to take anyone else's needs or desires into account, and do the stuff I had to do on Saturday and Sunday.

There were just so many things I loved about the 4/40 workweek, with very little downside once I got used to it.

Of course, that was when I was young (in my 20s) and healthy, and I didn't get tired as easily. I could never manage a 10-hour workday now (although that's not a fair observation since I can't manage an 8-hour workday now either!) But at the time I was really amazed at how little difference there was in the way I felt at the end of the day after the first couple of weeks.

Why not find out if there's an option to go back to 5/40 (or 5/8 or whatever the standard schedule is called) -- if there is, there's no reason not to give the 4/10 schedule a try. If it has to be a permanent change, give it some more thought -- but do seriously consider it.

[platypus]

Thanks for telling me about your experiences -- I'm really going to consider it. It doesn't have to be a permanent alteration; in fact, our library's policy on alternative work schedules is that they're approved on an annual basis, depending on the needs of the department. Since my new department doesn't have to staff a public service desk, it's much more flexible with things like this. My new boss's comment came in the form of "I'd prefer you to work a five-day week for now, while you're being trained," but that strongly implies that switching would be possible once I'm settled in.

I've been working a staggered week, Sunday-Thursday, for all six years I've been at the library. I've very much liked having a weekday off, for all the reasons you've mentioned (ironically, though, no dentist in San Diego works on Fridays, so it didn't help with my dental stuff). It's also been a bit rough having only one day a week off with Ken, but at the same time I really like having a day off on my own. I've always thought a permanent three-day weekend would be an excellent solution.

Working a ten-hour day would also require me to get up very early and get myself to work, though; I'd like to still end my workday at the same time as Ken so we could have dinner together. Our mornings rarely involve much interaction, but I'd have to go to bed earlier and part of the appeal of the new job is that it doesn't have stringent hours. Of course, if I start sleeping in and going to work at 10am and needing to work until 6:30 or 7pm, I'm just going to be unhappy about that as well. And Ken, I suspect, doesn't much care either way as long as I don't ask him to get up at some ungodly hour.

If I try the new schedule and like it, it might be a nice carrot for them to use to keep me in the position. I doubt I could get such an arrangement if I went for the Reserves Supervisor position next summer.

[nosrednayduj]

I don't have 8 hours of brain cells available, let alone 10. I really only have 6 hours of brain cells. My code gets useless and my debugging skills drain out my ear. Unless I'm watching grass grow like I did this weekend (big fileserver reorg, lots of time waiting for file transfers) I can't work 40 hours in a week.

About 10 years ago I went to 6 hour days, cut out doing personal email/internet at my job, and my productivity went UP, and I had more time for both chores and fun. I did it unilaterally and talked to my boss 3 mos later -- I said if he could tell me when I'd done it (I usually left after him, which is how I could get away with it), I'd go back to 40 hrs. But he agreed I was just as productive so we'd leave it alone and not even tell HR. That was nice, still collecting the big bucks.

Then when there were layoffs 3 years later(I survived TWO layoffs at parttime, so that's not why they laid me off) and I needed another job it was hard to convince the new company it would work, so they lowballed me in salary, but I asked them to give me a big raise after a year if they felt it was working, and they did. Since then they've put up with extraordinary part-time-ness after my twins were born (10 hrs/week for the first year, gradually ramping up to about 20 now, and the kids are 4), and my demand to be hourly instead of salaried.

I LOVE being hourly. If I work, I get paid. If I don't work, I don't feel guilty. It takes more effort to manage my deadlines, so it may not work for everyone, but it makes me a very happy camper.