So I am no longer allowed to go online during work hours. Do you know how FRUSTRATING with a Capital F that is?
This basically means that I can’t bank, shop, send private emails, comment on the occasional blog or even just catch up on some news. Even during my lunch hour.
It’s like someone is putting a piece of cheesecake in front of me and telling me not to eat it. So much of cruelty!
NBL can see everyone’s computer screens from where she sits and is very nit-picky and nosey and gossipy and quite frankly just has terrible manners.
Essentially it means that I have to do everything that I would usually do during the day AT HOME in the evenings.
Which further means that I can’t find time to blog, read AND comment on my friends blogs. Which also means that my reading time gets pushed later. Which ALSO means that I go to bed A LOT later. Which means that I can’t function the next day because I’ve had 6 hours of sleep instead of 8. AND it means that I end up spending a few hours on my computer on the weekends which I so nicely stopped doing for a while. This in turn means that my family time and other things on the weekends get compromised. I just can’t win!
Argh. Seriously.
I feel completely cut off from the world during the day. So I go on my phone. And then I get stared at. If I didn’t know better, I would be convinced that someone smaaks me with a passion.
But anyway. This is what my evening used to look like before NBL came into my life – it took A LOT of experimenting and refining and organising and planning to get it to work this perfectly:
18:00 – arrive home
18:10 – 19:30 – cook, tidy up, check homework diaries, sign all circulars, homework check and possible assistance, prep for the next day, get kids bathed and into bed.
19:30 – 20:30 - computer time! I used this time to tie up any admin that I couldn’t do during the day, blog, reply to comments on my blog, read blogs, comment on blogs, clean up GR, pin, FB, tweet. Amazingly I got A LOT done during this hour because I KNEW had to be VERY intentional because of the fact that I only had one hour in which to finish everything.
20:30 – 21:30 – hang out with Rose and prior to Rose coming into my life, an actual paper book.
21:35 – Lights out so that I can feel OK when I rise at 05:30am.
This is what my life currently looks like in the evenings::
17:45 – arrive home.
18:00 – 21:00 – cook, tidy up (this has been taking longer lately because I’ve been neglecting a lot of things during winter), check homework diaries (that is IF the diary comes home. Sometimes it doesn’t come home and then I end up fighting with Child1 which can take anything up to 20 minutes – his attitude is driving me NUTS!), sign circulars, homework check and assistance (apparently he remembers stuff that he wrote in his diary), school projects (there have been PLENTY of these in these past few weeks and they have been VERY labour intensive), assist Child1 with studying and testing for assessments (this has taken two weeks of my time and no, he has ADHD and can’t manage it on his own OR with friends. If I want this then it would mean medicating him in the evenings which causes further complications because it means that he won’t sleep at night), prep for the next day, get kids bathed and fed (this has been a struggle lately because Child2 is a freaking nightmare when it comes to settling down). Have I mentioned that my DH is too tired to help me? I’m done talking about it and asking for help. Really.
21:15 – THIS is when I first switch on my computer. By then I am completely knackered so if I’m lucky I might manage a blog post. I don’t manage to reply to comments on my posts and this frustrates me TREMENDOUSLY because I really like doing this. And I might do some admin that I MUST do. I am too exhausted at this stage to read blogs, comment on blogs, to clear out my GR. But I do what I can and then end up in bed around 23:00 which is WAY too late. And I end up not doing any reading which makes me unhappy.
AND the next day I feel like I have a hangover because of the fact that I didn’t get enough sleep.
So. I have thought about this:
I can push my bedtime to after 21:30 - maybe by 2 hours, which would effectively mean that I am a dead person walking the next day.
OR I can also stick to my reading and bedtime schedule and not go on my computer at all and then spend approximately 6-8 hours on the weekend catching up on emails (I have about 57 unread at the moment because I don’t get time to go through everything in the evening). I also have about 188 unread blog posts in GR. Which I’m not getting to. But then I would feel even MORE isolated than I feel now.
The other alternative would be to get a tablet or something and go and sit in the Wimpy during lunch hour so I can get free WIFI. BUT this is a COSTLY exercise and I can’t truly say that I’m a Tablet kind of girl.
So. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
What would you do? Push out bedtime? Skip all computer time during the week? Get a tablet?
Anything else maybe?
At this stage I’m feeling the need to clone myself. Sigh.
Well now. That’s my idea of hell right there (someone looking over my shoulder all the time). I don’t mind the no access during core work times but I want to at least pop in during the day
Mind you, they went through that for a BRIEF period here (only access to social media and blogs before 7, between 12 and 1 and after 5). The natives were very restless and so they relaxed it but if people abuse, then it’s taken up with them.
So I would do this if I were you – do you have a laptop at home or a real computer? I would take the laptop and iburst with me every day and use my lunch time to relax by blogging, catching up, etc. Failing which, if I was inclined to spend the money, I’d get a tablet and do the same. Have you done that exercise on what your time is worth? from my newsletters (go search on my blog). At this rate for you, that hour at lunch is 5 hours a week. Just one week would pay me to invest in a tablet so those 5 hours are freed at night, or on the weekend when I really need it. I’m not saying it’s the same for you.
I probably in the meantime would do a bit of both Julia. Push out bedtime just a little but not compromise totally. I’d actually take the kindle to work and use the lunch hour to read, and then have most of my home time for computer, and maybe just read for 10 minutes a night.
Oh and PS, I’d say to DH, “pick a child and that child is yours for the night”.
From the time D walks in (6:15 – 6:30), the kids are his so I can cook and sort the kitchen and next day’s meals. I just go in at the end to pray and do kisses 
I think it’s madness to expect you to do everything. You both work and are exhausted – as my mother would say, “many hands make light work” 
I meant the monthly repayment for a tablet. Not that 5 hours of my time are equal to R7 – R8000 or whatever they cost.
Wow. I would push bedtime out by 45min and do 2hrs on weekend….. But ultimately a tablet is the way to go. You will never be sorry. Rose needs company anyway
)
First off DH needs to get involved (am sure you blogged about this before?). You work a full day, so does he. You either need to split the chores – ie you kitchen/supper etc and him kids or vice versa.
Second you need to cut down on Pc time – seriously, it is so addictive but completley unnecessary. Go thru your emails and unsubscribe to as much as possible, which should declutter considerably.
Get you phone set up so that you can download emails on yr phone, and then you can reply during lunch/tea time.
I know as a fact that if i workd full time i wouldn’t spend nearly as much time blogging/fb etc as I do. I just wouldn’t have the time.
Good grief! No internet at work? I hate working environments where everything from internet time to bathroom breaks is monitored!
That’s awful Jules!!!
NO! Your issue is the kids stuff!! You need to figure out a way to elminate that!! I don’t know your kids but for mine 18h00 is too late for me to get them to do ANYTHING! They both just switch off!!!
Do they go to after care – is there no way they can assist a little more?
I know Child2 has ADHD so it makes it harder but what happens if you stop fighting about the homework book? Just stop. If he doesnt have it then shame he doesnt have it – it doesnt get signed and he deals with it? Will he respond to that?
The studying is a MISSION. What if you do it over weekends – take 2 hours on a sunday to study for the tests during the week and then each afternoon you just have to review? This term I left Cameron and when he got 65% for 2 subjects he was devastated – so pulled his socks up but not sure if this will work as effectively with kid1???
THEN don’t ask DH – tell him. Take kid1 into his room – close the door and do his homework with him – leave kid2 with DH and ignore whatever chaos ensues!!!!!!!!
I would also try cooking meals in advance – like maybe on a sunday or even a Friday when there is no homework. I do this know even though I am at home from 2h00 – if I see the day looks crazy then I cook before I go to work (ok I know this isnt possible always).
I have figured out if my afternoon runs smoothly with the kids the rest falls into place easier!!!!
I would look into the tablet option or as another commenter says take your laptop and toggle to work so you can surf while on your lunch break.
Hope you find a resolution to this one and post about it cos I find I don’t have time for everything either and it FRUSTRATES me no end.
xxx
In general I can balance all my balls more or less, but as soon as there’s a disruption in routine like this week’s 4 days of training and late meeting it all goes to hell in a hand basket!
What works for me is to prioritise. Okay, so I can’t get to everything. How many can I get to? Which ones will make me the happiest, or gave the biggest impact.
You could also read on some days…blog on others?
I used to write my blog posts in Word at work and email them to myself at home to upload in the evening. That saved a lot of time. I also agree about limiting what you read – I’ve unsubscribed to a great many things and only follow a few blogs these days. Alternatively you can get your email sent to your phone (if your phone can handle it), so that you can deal with it as it arrives. I do that, and if I need to see the document better, I just forward it to myself at work.
We are very restricted with regards to what we can access from our PC’s at work – no social media and no Blogger blogs. No Youtube either. But at least I can do my banking! Being a hotel, we have free wi-fi, so I often take my laptop with me if I know I’m not going to be super-busy. Then I can get into everything. Of course, I don’t have some snooty witch looking over my shoulder all day long.
Pingback: Real-life Wednesday | Unwritten