How do you start your day? How do you end your day?

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

Simple questions that I think will get a lot of different, interesting and fun answers. Just a head's up: remember this isn't The Tar sWamp and we've got some younger orgers here.

Some people have a set routine, others make every start and ending different. That's one of the things that will make this interesting, I think.

For me, it's always the same. I live and work in a chaotic, ever-changing business, so I try to have stability and order in as many things as I have control over -- all my towels folded the same way, in thirds widthwise then thirds length wide; the handles on the coffee cups in my kitchen cabinet all facing the same direct, etc. It's the same for me with starting and ending my day. Because I work very late each night, when there are few distractions, I'm a late riser, up at around 10 A.M. A warm shower, then downstairs where Kim has been working since 7:30 A.M. I always start with two liquid protein and collagen supplements, followed by an 'Unforgettable' memory supplement pill and one Famotodine antacid so I can stay ahead of the heartburn game. Breaks can very -- eggs and potatoes three days a week, along with three slices of Kim's smoked and hand-sliced bacon, three days of cereal with fruit and one day that Kim surprises me on. Coffee, quick check of he-man.org, half an hour on all here news sites -- confession: NPR.prg and BBC are my favorites, still fairly objective reportage -- then straight to work.

Evenings are predictable. Kim is usually asleep around 11 P.M., so I'm upstairs around 1 A.M. after I finish writing. It takes me about an hour to unwind from writing and I'm assisted by RestEz, which all my docs have approved of since it's primarily valerian, melatonin and other safe stuff. I like mind-numbing entertainment before I go to sleep, so I'll watch a couple episodes of King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond or as much of an old film as I can keep my eyes open for -- Mildred Pierce, Double Indemnity, Carpetbaggers, The Lost Horizon, Citizen Kane, The Caine Mutiny, Patton, Rudy, Rocky, etc. The more times I've seen a film the better as it lulls me to sleep.

So those are my daily bookends. In between, my life is one of constant business battles, endless writing, dealing with the Yorkshire terrier who basically runs all of our lives and time spent with the rest of my amazing family. Somehow it all works for me and I wouldn't have it any other way.

How about you guys and gals?

[dorrmann]

I like my routines as well.

Weekday mornings I'm up before 6:30 then head to the bathroom for a shower and other morning necessities. I leave the house by 7:15 to get to the office by 7:30. From there it varies day to day.

Evenings are mostly the same as well. Once Adora is ready for bed, we watch an old sitcom (currently switching between Diff'rent Strokes, That 70's Show, and Bewitched) before we go to bed. We'll sing two songs to her (tradition is that mom sings Soft Kitty from the Big Bang Theory and I sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - no matter the time of year) before we tuck her into bed. I'm usually asleep five minutes later. :helol:

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

I like my routines as well.

Weekday mornings I'm up before 6:30 then head to the bathroom for a shower and other morning necessities. I leave the house by 7:15 to get to the office by 7:30. From there it varies day to day.

Evenings are mostly the same as well. Once Adora is ready for bed, we watch an old sitcom (currently switching between Diff'rent Strokes, That 70's Show, and Bewitched) before we go to bed. We'll sing two songs to her (tradition is that mom sings Soft Kitty from the Big Bang Theory and I sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - no matter the time of year) before we tuck her into bed. I'm usually asleep five minutes later. :helol:

Wow, does this ever bring back memories. All our kiddos are grown up now, but when they were young, reading to them was the biggest and most wonderful part of bedtime, for them and us. They just could not get enough of Good-night Moon, anything Dr. Seuss and The Jack & Annie Magic Treehouse books. Hold onto and cherish these times, dorrmann. They are gone in the blink of an eye.

[Glasstor]

As a single human my life can be chaotic and unorganized so, I too keep my morning and evening(pre-bed) activities routine. I wake up around 9:00am( I’m a late riser too) and start some water for coffee. Hit the head and a shower, make coffee and then sit outside(usually the weather is accommodating) and soak up life for about 20 minutes, checking emails and web stuff before I either start working or head out to the office.

Evening, I usually work until 8 at home(get home from office around 8-9), eat or scrounge something, then I either watch a show or housework and mellow with my habits until I’m ready for bed- about 1-2 am. At the moment I’m watching Extrapolations, Ted Lasso and Schmigadoon on AppleTV+ but, I usually catch some Star Trek too.

Sometimes, I force myself out of my routine but, as a Taurus, I love my lazy alone time. Lol

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

As a single human my life can be chaotic and unorganized so, I too keep my morning and evening(pre-bed) activities routine. I wake up around 9:00am( I’m a late riser too) and start some water for coffee. Hit the head and a shower, make coffee and then sit outside(usually the weather is accommodating) and soak up life for about 20 minutes, checking emails and web stuff before I either start working or head out to the office.

Evening, I usually work until 8 at home(get home from office around 8-9), eat or scrounge something, then I either watch a show or housework and mellow with my habits until I’m ready for bed- about 1-2 am. At the moment I’m watching Extrapolations, Ted Lasso and Schmigadoon on AppleTV+ but, I usually catch some Star Trek too.

Sometimes, I force myself out of my routine but, as a Taurus, I love my lazy alone time. Lol

I really like the concept of twenty minutes outside each morning to soak up life. I'm going to try that. Thanks for sharing.

[Glasstor]

I really like the concept of twenty minutes outside each morning to soak up life. I'm going to try that. Thanks for sharing.

It’s one of the best parts of my day, usually.

I forgot to mention that most nights, I take an hour to listen to vinyl records. I really enjoy pulling things out of my collection that I haven’t listened to in a while or, there are always new acquisitions. It’s awesome when you can just sit down and focus on the music.

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

It’s one of the best parts of my day, usually.

I forgot to mention that most nights, I take an hour to listen to vinyl records. I really enjoy pulling things out of my collection that I haven’t listened to in a while or, there are always new acquisitions. It’s awesome when you can just sit down and focus on the music.

Yeah, I'm that way with film noir movies.

[Fendi]

Stars my day with a ice chocolate & a few cigarettes. go up and do a relaxing shower. then I would do everything ask what my family asked for. Right now? just communing between the hospital and the house. For my grandma, she's a strong person and very sharp minded even though she's too weak to walk but, if you dissed her unintentionally? Get ready to receive flame by her. LOL

[Iluvart]

Most of my days start the same - get my kid ready for school, make sure the pet rabbit is fed. Then I get ready to head to work myself.

On weekends it's slightly different as I have more time, so it usually involves some housework, like getting the laundry done and making some kinda breakfast (e.g. oats, noodles, pasta, sandwich, etc.).

I end my day by making sure whatever I need for work the next day is packed and ready, and pack away anything I don't need.

Yep, my routine is pretty uneventful.

[Dice]

Every morning I wake up about 5:30, shower, get dressed, and head to work. I'm not a morning person so I'm in like a zombie mode early on. If I don't lay everything out the night ahead or anything is out of normal place, there's a good chance I'll forget it. I usually make it to work some time before 6:30.

Once at work I'm lucky enough to have my own lab as well as like a mini food center (mic, fridge, coffee maker) to myself. I typically get breakfast going and power everything up. Spend most of my morning answering e-mails, checking out the org and other websites, and grazing on whatever breakfast I made.

Somewhere between 8 and 10 I start my actual work day. I'm lucky enough that I plan my own schedule, work on what I want, and am generally a resource for other departments. If anyone else needs things I take care of those almost immediately. Then I basically can do what I want. Wasn't always like this but I am spoiled here at this point.

I go in early so that I can enjoy my afternoon. Right now I go to gym on Mondays and Wednesdays, golf on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I'm home by 5:00 or earlier. I do some chore (dishes, laundry, mowing) and I'm done. Afterwards I shower and usually have dinner ready for my wife before she gets home. Once she gets home and we spend anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours sitting outside chatting.

Afterwards I'll either sit with her and watch some show, or go upstairs to my little mancave. I'll play video games, read, or watch anime till about time to get ready for bed. All depends on how much time we spent outside.

Lock up the house, brush and clean up, spend time with wife , and after I'm out in 5 minutes or less


Weekends are fun. Golf, hanging out, Semi-lazy days. I do the main chores during the week so that weekends are free to just enjoy.

[Dave-Man]

Wake up way too early. Clean litter boxes, feed large hairy horde of cats, feed self, go to work.
Get my buttons pushed entirely too much. Have lunch. Get my buttons pushed entirely too much. Get off of work, clean up in house and yard.
Eat dinner, watch some TV. Feed the hairy horde again. Take a shower, go to sleep. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

Wake up way too early. Clean litter boxes, feed large hairy horde of cats, feed self, go to work.
Get my buttons pushed entirely too much. Have lunch. Get my buttons pushed entirely too much. Get off of work, clean up in house and yard.
Eat dinner, watch some TV. Feed the hairy horde again. Take a shower, go to sleep. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I feel for you, Dave-Man. On balance, however, I don't think you are alone. Actually, I think you're an Everyman.

I'm at a point in my life that I don't need to blow smoke up anyone's...well, you know what I mean. (For the record, I never did. It just wasn't my style.). But I'll tell you, my friend, you have a stunning and unintentionally chilling and gripping, very Hemingway-esque and if anyone hasn't read Hemingway, all it will take is reading a few pages of The Old Man and the Sea to understand what I mean lean, to the point and generally shying away from polysyllable words. It's a style foreign to my own writing and perhaps that's why I'm drawn to it when I read it.

My point is, I think you've got a story to tell and one that a lot of people would relate to -- very Orwell 1984. I'm not sure where the story would go, but that's okay because it's your story; not mine.

Look, I get that unsolicited advice is kind of like virginity -- a gift often more prized by the donor than the recipient. But I'd suggest you start keeping a daily journal, aim for getting three our four hundred pages written, then submit it to an agent.

Good luck and keep on keeping on. It takes a warrior to survive the kind of life you describe...and imo there are a lot of warriors out there waiting to find out they're not alone.

[Ornclown]

Like most working humans, I have a pretty set routine.

I wake up at 5:30 am, eat a bit of yogurt or a banana, (go to the bathroom ) then go on a 2 mile run (usually the same route around a large and rather scenic park in my neighborhood), get home, shower, make coffee, have another nibble and head to work around 7am.

After work, I usually answer any pending emails, play with my cats, make dinner (if its my turn), either watch a show, read a book, or play a game... then, it's off to the bedtime routine and hitting the sack normally around 10:30 / 11 pm.

I don't run on Wednesdays or Saturdays. Weekends are when I do yard work, housework, grocery shopping, lesson planning and grading student work.

Also, my routine is changed slightly in the summer because I am a lead counselor at a local summer camp, which basically means I get to sleep in for an extra half-hour every day!

My biggest vice is the fact that I drink entirely too much coffee - every day...

[Iluvart]

I've just noticed that in comparison most of you seem to have pretty healthy lifestyles, and are early risers (like my dad was).

It's a habit that I used to have, but due to logistics, there's not much point in me getting up before 7am.

I would like to start doing some exercise during the weekends though, as that's about the only days that I am free(r).

[Dice]

I've just noticed that in comparison most of you seem to have pretty healthy lifestyles, and are early risers (like my dad was).

It's a habit that I used to have, but due to logistics, there's not much point in me getting up before 7am.

I would like to start doing some exercise during the weekends though, as that's about the only days that I am free(r).

Not too long ago I put myself on my wife's schedule which let me get up almost 2 hours later

But we rarely got home before 6 and that's with no gym or other activities accomplished. Get home, try to do a few chores, eat, and it was basically bed time. I hated it.

New schedule makes life much easier on both of us. She has a much more demanding and stressful job so me having everything done and supper ready when she gets home means a lot.

I'm very lucky to have a job where I can work the schedule that works best for me.

[BCI Guy]

My biggest vice is the fact that I drink entirely too much coffee - every day...

Impossible! (Unless you dump dairy and sugar into it!)

Alarm goes off at 7:30. Roll out of bed, get dressed, grab the dogs and head to the park to meet their "pack". 3 miles or so later, I'm back home at around 9:10. Get the dogs food and supplements ready and while they're eating I start heating water and grinding coffee. I'll brew my 1st pour over (or a "double" if Lisa wants coffee as well), and then into the office around 9:30. Coffee, emails, take care of any emergencies and then around 10:00 some kind of homemade breakfast comes walking to my desk (unless it's poker season, then I'm on my own).

After dinner, we'll run any errands if we have them and then usually we'll binge something good on TV. Fortunately we have almost the exact same taste in shows and movies.

[VZX]

For me:
Alarm goes off at 6:23 am. Get dressed/brush teeth/do hair takes about 15 minutes (5 of which are tying that durn tie).
Go downstairs to let dogs out, feed dogs, make coffee for me and wife, make my lunch. Then I bring up coffee to my pretty sleeping wife.
Out the door by 7:07 am.
Get to work, answer emails (I stopped answering work emails at home), set up any last-minute items for class like labs/projects/etc and wait for the students.

Once home, every evening is slightly different, but before bed is mostly the same:
Set up outfit for the next day (usually I check with wife to make sure it matches), shower, then wife and I read in bed for about a half-hour. Sometimes we watch and send each other Tik Toks or watch some old cartoon such as Scooby Do or The Smurfs. Then get to sleep between 11:00-11:30pm.

[Fendi]

Then get to sleep between 11:00-11:30pm.

During my 9-5 days? I could not get my brain and my eyes waking up past 10pm on weekdays, as I'm taking lifelong medication. It is difficult for me to sacrifice my sleep time for a personal entertainment hour. I rather rest my brain for a long period of time than going to the office crooked and sleepy.

[Dave-Man]

I feel for you, Dave-Man. On balance, however, I don't think you are alone. Actually, I think you're an Everyman.

I'm at a point in my life that I don't need to blow smoke up anyone's...well, you know what I mean. (For the record, I never did. It just wasn't my style.). But I'll tell you, my friend, you have a stunning and unintentionally chilling and gripping, very Hemingway-esque and if anyone hasn't read Hemingway, all it will take is reading a few pages of The Old Man and the Sea to understand what I mean lean, to the point and generally shying away from polysyllable words. It's a style foreign to my own writing and perhaps that's why I'm drawn to it when I read it.

My point is, I think you've got a story to tell and one that a lot of people would relate to -- very Orwell 1984. I'm not sure where the story would go, but that's okay because it's your story; not mine.

Look, I get that unsolicited advice is kind of like virginity -- a gift often more prized by the donor than the recipient. But I'd suggest you start keeping a daily journal, aim for getting three our four hundred pages written, then submit it to an agent.

Good luck and keep on keeping on. It takes a warrior to survive the kind of life you describe...and imo there are a lot of warriors out there waiting to find out they're not alone.

Oh, I very much believe there is a story to tell. I keep feeling called to tell it but I'm not sure exactly what the story is and who needs to see it. I've felt called to write, to preach (naturally), and lately to take photos, a whole lot of photos. Just been feeling out of place the last few years - while at the same time suspecting I am in the place where I should be. Just no writing on the wall, and no burning bushes to point the way. Been many a year since I "saw the wheel and many a discouragement.

[dan1980]

7am alarm, wake the grumpy teen, make lunch, cuppa, wake the grumpy teen again and make sure he’s out of bed. 8am-10am is my time before I get out the sketch pads and pens out to work on art commissions.
End of the day is cooking dinner, then a variety of tv shows that me and my partner enjoy. Partner heads to bed at 10pm and I watch my tv shows or films for a few hours. Head to bed around 3am to try and sleep.

Suffer from insomnia so sleep is elusive and can often spend 2-4 days awake, despite prescribed meds making me mildly sleepy. So often my days have no beginning or end.

[maxx79]

It is interesting how most people have similar or the same (boring) life routines,life is mostly reduced to home-work-a little TV in the evening-sleep...

Does anyone here live an unusual and exciting life like a character from an American movie/series?


I (Monday - Friday) get up around 5:30, have breakfast and arrive at work around 6:30 (When the weather is nice, I go to work by bike 7.5km in one direction)... I work until 14:30 and I'm home before 15:00 in the afternoon...

I spend the remaining part of the day until 23:00 in the evening on family obligations, some work around the house if necessary or on my hobbies (gym, multimedia on the computer, MOTUC, reading books, comics, watching movies).

I try to spend my weekends somewhere in nature, forest, mountain, etc.....i have little cabin in woods

Btw, I live in Europe

[Durendal]

On weekdays I get up at 5:50 am. I don't ever eat breakfast. I then head to the gym 5 days a week to do weight training (getting ever closer to that He-Man body!). After that I go to work (8:30 - 4:30). I do stuff with the kids after that, and try to watch something before going to sleep around 12:30 or 1 am. Rinse and repeat.

[Dice]

On weekdays I get up at 5:50 am. I don't ever eat breakfast. I then head to the gym 5 days a week to do weight training (getting ever closer to that He-Man body!). After that I go to work (8:30 - 4:30). I do stuff with the kids after that, and try to watch something before going to sleep around 12:30 or 1 am. Rinse and repeat.

Wow! It blows my mind that you're able to do that much weight training on so little sleep


I'd fall asleep at my desk if I tried your routine

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

It is interesting how most people have similar or the same (boring) life routines,life is mostly reduced to home-work-a little TV in the evening-sleep...

Does anyone here live an unusual and exciting life like a character from an American movie/series?


I (Monday - Friday) get up around 5:30, have breakfast and arrive at work around 6:30 (When the weather is nice, I go to work by bike 7.5km in one direction)... I work until 14:30 and I'm home before 15:00 in the afternoon...

I spend the remaining part of the day until 23:00 in the evening on family obligations, some work around the house if necessary or on my hobbies (gym, multimedia on the computer, MOTUC, reading books, comics, watching movies).

I try to spend my weekends somewhere in nature, forest, mountain, etc.....i have little cabin in woods

Btw, I live in Europe

I guess the most "exciting and unusual" thing for me is that I get to stay up really late every night -- whether watching old movies or writing -- and then wake up around ten or eleven in the morning and ease myself into the day, starting writing around noon. In the Air Force I was either on the flight line or in the hospital by 7:00. Then for ten years in my father's clothing business I had to be at the store by 8:30. I hated it and I feel for anyone who has to get up early and doesn't like it.

I'm certainly no movie star , but I guess having written over 1,300 episodes of television, eighteen films and seven novels has granted me the luxury of living my hours as I choose. I'm seventy-four. It sure took long enough.

[logan89]

i start my day with early wake up around 5 am and then take breakfast at 6.30 am and then go to study place and then around 6 pm go to gym.