A Day In The Life - Working From Home

Hey, welcome to a day in the life of working from home. Here are some ways I used the apps and tools from previous and future posts.

5:30 am - Wake up

I wake up to the silent alarm of the Apple Watch. This has been my go-to alarm clock for the past few months as it also tracks my sleep. I make my way to the bathroom to freshen up and weigh myself. I recently acquired a smart scale (eufy smart scale) that syncs directly to the apple health app. Next, I check the weather to confirm that the run I am planning to go on this morning will be cold. I change into my winter running gear and complete a 12-minute stretching routine on the Steaks Workout app (The Streaks workout app).

I make my way down to the lobby and commence my run. Today I am aiming for 6k along a route I haven’t run before, I mapped it out on How Far Did I Run, and I struggle to remember it perfectly. After getting lost at a point where the footpath suddenly disappears, I manage to navigate myself back on course and find my way home.

Once I arrive back at the apartment the first thing I do is check my points in the activity app, I am currently in a 7-day competition on the Apple activity app with my partner and she is in the lead. Satisfied with my closing of the gap I start my morning routine.

7:00 am - Morning Routine

My working-from-home morning routine starts the same as working from the office. Straight into the shower after exercise, followed up with getting changed into a black oversize t-shirt and shorts. 3 months into working from home and everyone has relaxed their attires significantly.

I then make a black coffee to avoid breaking my fast. I fast from 8:00 pm to 12:00 pm (16 hours), pretty much every weekday. Opening up the Strava app and upload my run from the Apple Watch and start to analyse the data.

8:30 am - Start Work

I start the work day by writing down 3-4 bullet points on what I want to focus on that day. I find this stops me from task switching and causing that loss in efficiency you experience when trying to make your brain change between topics/tasks.

By the time I have written them down the first meeting of the day starts. Today I have 2 team meetings to start things off. These consist of everyone giving an overview of their previous day's work and their plan for today.

Next, I start to work through the bullet points I noted down at the beginning of the day, however, an ad-hoc user requests come through and I spend the next 2 hours troubleshooting it.

Finally, just before lunch, I have a meeting with one of the team members to hand over the work they have been doing for a few months.

12:00 pm - Lunch

Typically I will have my meal prep for lunch, however, today I have decided to venture outside as coincidentally the meal prep and dinner tonight are the same types of food. I have been craving katsu chicken from the oriental market next to the apartment and once acquired I heat it up in the microwave back at the apartment and sit down to watch some youtube.

It only takes 2 videos (Binging with Babish , He Spoke Style) to finish the meal and instead of spending the rest of my lunch break binging more, I switch to reading. I am currently reading I'm OK, You're OK, a book on transactional analysis recommended by the podcast Not Overthinking. The initial chapters are spent setting up the framework for the more complicated concepts to be introduced later. I find it easiest to read on my phone or iPad as taking notes within the app is very easy.

Just before I start work again for the afternoon I make a latte-style coffee with oat milk and settle down in the office with 2 savoy muffins.

1:00 pm - Work

The afternoon starts off with another client meeting for a new scope of work which I will be taking on. Then I am able to get stuck into writing some SQL queries and building visuals. Most of the afternoon is spent switching between building views in the database and tweaking visuals in PowerBI.

To close out the work day our team has a meeting to discuss how we are all tracking and distributing any new news from the past week. It's great to see everyone as it has been 3 months since we were all back in the office.

5:15 pm - Productivity

In the time before dinner, I work on cleaning up any small tasks I have thought of throughout the day. Starting with copying notes out of the books app and into Obsidian, a graph-based note-taking tool stored in markdown files and works the same way as Wikipedia.

I also plan out the exercises I want to add to the Streak workout app to build an upper body workout as the apartment gym remains closed.

6:00 pm - Dinner

For dinner, we have one of the foodie box meals which is delivered every week. Tonight its meatballs and spaghetti and it take about 40 mins to prepare. Whilst the meals still need to cook and prepared, they only supply the ingredients and the recipe, it feels healthier than microwaving ready-made meals.

7:30 pm - Relax

After dinner, I relax on the couch and watch an episode of Archer (a new season has just been released) before finishing off the task I started earlier. Using the template I created before dinner I start to build the exercises and finally the workout in The Streaks workout app. I am planning to try it out tomorrow morning.

8:45 pm - Evening Routine

I start the process of getting ready for bed by washing my face and cleaning my teeth. Once in bed, I usually read a book to help me fall asleep. I carry on reading some more of the book I’m Ok, You’re Ok from earlier in the day.

9:30 pm - Sleep

I set my alarm on my apple watch and ensure the SleepWatch app is activated.

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my day and hopefully I will be able to do one of these in the future while working from the office.