An honest 'day in my life'
For a work day and rest day, and how I carve out time for things
Hi! This is Leyla from A Day Well Spent, a newsletter seeking pathways to more purposeful living.
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I have a confession
I am an innately nosey person. But maybe I should rephrase that as curious – it sounds more socially acceptable.
I love peering out the window into gardens when I’m on a train. If there’s commotion down the street, I can’t resist moseying on over to find out what’s going on. One of my career fantasies is to host a TV show where I get free reign to nose around people’s homes, Through the Keyhole style.
Maybe it’s because I’m a presenter and food journalist on BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme, which involves asking lots of people lots of questions. But I like to know things. I have an insatiable desire to know. all. of. the. things.
Especially the things that are hidden away, that aren’t immediately obvious.
My favourite magazine feature
This might be why my favourite part of magazines has always been the ‘A Day In My Life’ features. Because unless you co-habit with someone, it’s very hard to know the intricacies of how other people actually live their day-to-day lives. And most of us will only ever live with a handful of other people – that’s a pretty small data set.
I don’t know the characters in these features and I will never meet them, yet I still want to know everything about how they live their lives. The first thing they do in the morning. Their mealtimes and routines. Their habits and responsibilities. What they manage to fit into 24 hours.
After getting a few requests for this (read: one request), I thought maybe I could share an average day in my own life. So over the course of a recent week, I recorded everything I did each day, with timestamps.
I’ve not actually done this before. It’s been a bit of a revelation for me to see just how much time I spend on different things and at what times of the day these things happen.
Some home truths
I should caveat the above with the fact that I don’t think my life is remotely interesting enough for this; I am that person who can happily not leave the house for a week.
It’s in no way a glamorous or fancy day. It’s just a very real and very normal 24 hours in my life. It’s been a good exercise to do and I’m interested in my own findings.
Not all of my days can be chalked up as a success, there’s been lots of trial and error over the years (aka adulthood?). Some days I’m on top of it all and running the whole damn show. On other days, dishes remain unwashed, it’s 4pm and I haven’t started work and I get ratty and annoyed because I haven’t prioritised exercise.
But isn’t that just life.
And most of us are in a similar boat, regardless of the responsibilities we have. Be that caregiving, running a business, maintaining a house, and the rest.
But at the end of it all, when I look at my findings, the way I live my life in my day-to-day is enriching, for me. Some will read it in horror (hellooo, wild bedtimes). But I do feel like I’ve sort of figured out how to have a peaceful, fulfilling and productive day – with moments of self-care and joy weaved into a busy schedule – most of the time.
I’m hoping that sharing my average day could hopefully help others to see how they might be able to do a bit of the same.
My average ‘work’ day and my average ‘rest’ day
I’ve split my recordings into two types of days, ‘work days’ (i.e. days that contain activities I get paid for) and ‘rest days’ (i.e. the remaining days).
In an average week, I have 3-4 rest days and 3-4 work days, depending on my work load. I love my rest days the most and from those days, Fridays are my favourite for this reason.
What I’ve shared below is a highly unscientific median of everything I noted down: what my average work day looks like and what my average rest day looks like.
Who remembers the career-related ‘A Day In My Life’ features in Stylist Magazine? I used to lap those up.
So I’ve attempted to use the same format for my work day entry: My alarm goes off… My commute… I am responsible for… I got the job… My typical day… When I’m stressed or tired I… My go-to snack at work is… My most memorable moment… My email inbox… The best part of my job is… After work… and My Plan B…
And then for my rest day, this is more of a standard, time-stamped diary entry.
If you’re interested in my 7-day food diary, along with my food manifesto, you can find them in this is how — and what — I eat.
OK, here it goes.
A work day in the life of me, Leyla Kazim, a TV and radio presenter, writer and journalist
My alarm goes off…