My Ideal Day
I am in the middle of reading a book (surprise, surprise) about becoming wealthy, specifically a wealthy freelancer. The wealthy freelancer is not about gauging your customers and working till you drop dead to give your children a great inheritance. It’s also not a myth as most freelancers, parents & in laws seem to believe. It’s about taking control of your working habits, and changing how you prioritize, to have the clients, income & lifestyle you want and deserve.
In the first chapters of the wealthy freelancer the authors, Steve, Pete & Ed (I feel like we are on first name basis from listening to the audios, reading the books,watching them on YouTube and seeing their tweets on twitter) suggest I write down my ideal day. Apparently this will give me a good idea as to where my priorities are and what future goals I should put in place.
Goal setting is one of the 12 secrets to achieving wealth in finances as well as lifestyle the book says. I see goal setting as more of a resolution I made at new years I have no intention of keeping. So I thought. Fine. I will work through these exercises and see what happens… The first one: “write down your ideal day”. Now I know what you are thinking. A lazy day in the sun by the pool, masseuse on one side, cute cabana boy on the other, serving tequilla induced girly drinks with pretty umbrellas all day long. Well, they tell me I’m not supposed to write that down. I’m supposed to write down an actual “reality” driven day. So here goes.. here is my Ideal day.
Reality sets in about 5:30 am with my husband getting up to head to work in my house so let’s just adjust that a bit. 6:30 am…. nope, 7:30… 8:30….9:30 . Ahhh there we are 10:30 am. This is the perfect time of the day for me to wake up. I’m a night hawk and you will see why by the end of my day the necessity of getting up at 10:30 am.I’m also a sleeper. I need min of 8 hrs sleep to function.
I once had a design professor that said no true creative person gets up before it’s legal to have a gin & tonic for breakfast. Hence design class did not start until 11am for the 2 years I was in college. And there lyin the habit forming practice.and the fact that I think I had a vampire for a room mate. 
10:30 awake & Yoga for an hour or so, shower – 20-25 minutes of pure 120 degree hot water bliss. (reality = 4.5 minutes with a 3 yr old trying to shave my legs for me) on to a hot green tea with a fruit plate & yogurt for breakfast at my kitchen table reading a book for 20-30 minutes or so… reality: 8:30 am Cold tea, leftover congealed cheese whiz on cold burnt toast my son insisted he had for breakfast but didn’t eat. #1 one son late for bus, #2 son on his second set of clothes for the day cause he tried to give the cat a shave in the shower too. so Ok. get dressed (without having to look through 6 baskets of clean unfolded laundry for a pair of semi matching socks) do my hair in peace and quiet and out the door to work at my state of the art office stacked with imacs, ipads and 26″ monitors with 6 employees who unlike me haven’t set goals and have been there since the crack of dawn.
For the next hour or two I would organize my day make sure everyone had things to do, call a few clients, write a blog post, return some emails and just make sure everything is running along tickety boo.
Around 2 ish I would have lunch with a friend or colleague or star client. or maybe just by myself down by the river with a good book. Realty is a half eaten bagel leftover from yesterday or greasy take out from Marty’s bar & grill across the street or nothing at all. It’s pretty bad when I don’t even have to say who’s calling or what I actually want when I call over there.. they know. And it will be ready in 10 minutes. And if they are really feeling sorry for me they will walk it across the street too.
So a relaxed lunch thoroughly enjoyed, back to the office to work on my star client stuff that I enjoy and have kept for myself, put out minor fires that me, being the linchpin of this company can only solve and meet with my team to brainstorm or see what their needs are from me.
3:15… pick up the kids from school or meet them from the bus, take them home, or to an extracurricular activity (anything but hockey), go shopping or do some running around with them. Reality… walking across the road nearly getting hit by my son’s school bus to get my 3 o’clock chocolate & tea fix. Kids are on their way to the sitters where they will safely stay out of my way for the next 2 hrs.
4:30 husband calls: I’m on my way home. I’ll start supper. Don’t forget to pick up the kids! “Ok honey I’ll start shutting things down right now” 5 pm. working…. 5:15… working…5:30 husband calls: Dinner is ready in 5 minutes, have you picked up the kids yet? OH CRAP> I forgot to stop working at 5 and pick up the kids. “I’m locking up right now honey”
Dinner at my house is a family event. Nobody misses dinner at the kitchen table unless you are deathly ill or you have made other commitments that occur during that time. So the real reality is I wouldn’t change this part or the next 2-3 hrs in fact. dinner, dishes, homework, playtime, stories, bed time routine and kids all tucked in with multiple hugs and kisses, trips to the potty, glasses of water and snuggles with critters of various sizes, shapes, breeds and colours by 8:30 pm.
That’s when things get serious. A twitter friend/follower/fan and illustration expert von glitchca (“Vonster”) refers to this time as going into “mole mode” so I go Mole: this is when I do my best work. This is when the ideas flow and things just magically happen. I love this time of day. This I wouldn’t change it either. This in reality only lasts till about 10 pm cause in real life I have to be up and functioning by 7 am. My ideal day would actually end about midnight or 1 am. Then I would take myself to bed and read for another hour or two. Hence the getting up at 10:30 am.
Now you are probably thinking this sounds like an awful long day with quite a bit of work in it. but really I only “worked” for about 4-5 hrs. and mostly after 8:30 pm. This would be my Monday to Thursday routine. Fridays would be a couples day ( Husband doesn’t work on Fridays, kids in school). Saturdays & Sundays Family only time.
After writing out my ideal day I realize that family time is important to me but not the focus of my life. My work is just as important.
One goal I haven’t ever been able to accomplish is eating regular healthy meals so perhaps this is a goal I need to set for myself. Don’t get me wrong I do eat healthy food. I love healthy food. (grilled chicken on spinach flat bread with avocado & sprouts being my fav) I just don’t enjoy the preparation of it. Did you notice… simple breakfast, restaurant lunch, husband makes dinner… I think that is great reality.
Other things I noticed I didn’t incorporate into my ideal day was housework… so I guess that means when I am a wealthy freelancer I will also have a maid! I need to start working on those goals quick the laundry is piling up!!!
