I’m Tired of My Normal Routine

I started making changes today

Let’s see if I can make them stick

We all get into a routine. Sometimes our routines are good, other times we get stuck into bad routines. I would not say my routine is bad, I’m just tired of it, and want to change it.

What is my current routine?

My wife, Feyma works a kind of “swing shift” at her place of employment (Tyson). She starts work at about 3:30 in the afternoon, and she gets off around 12:15 AM. At least that is her normal schedule, sometimes her schedule changes depending of what the company needs. It doesn’t change radically when it changes, just maybe an hour or so earlier (never later, though).

Myself, on the other hand, I work whatever hours I want since I am self-employed. Normally, I try to work at the time when Feyma is at work, just to keep us on the same schedule. The type of work I do does not demand that I work at certain hours, I can, more or less, work whenever I want. Currently I spend my work time doing two things:

1. Working on my eBay store
2. Getting back to writing on my websites

I am currently planning, and working on decreasing my eBay presence. I’ve been doing eBay pretty much returning to the USA in 2019. I had a large eBay presence in the late 1990s as well. I do good on eBay, but I am getting a bit tired of it, and really want to get back into writing on my websites, and writing more books. That is what I did for many years in the Philippines, and it is also what I really love. It feels good to be getting back into writing.

Other parts of my routine

A big part of my routine is spending time with Feyma. It doesn’t really matter what we are doing as long as we are together. One thing I really enjoy is when the two of us can just sit in the office, and each of us are on our computers. We do that most mornings, and have a cup of specialty coffee while we surf the web. Even if we are not talking or doing the same thing on the web, we are together, and that just feels comfortable and nice to me.

Here in the office we have a two seat desk that looks out on the river that borders our backyard. Sometimes I am doing things on the computer, but I also spend a lot of time look out at the river and the wildlife (deer, squirrels, birds, geese, ducks, even bald eagles) that are in our backyard or on the river. It is peaceful and cathartic. Feyma also does the same as I do, watching the activity and scenery outside while reading or watching videos on the Internet.

Getting Up Late

Because of Feyma’s work schedule, working until after Midnight, I tend to sleep later in the morning that I like. When I lived in the Philippines I would usually get up around 5 AM or even earlier. I would sleep at around 9 PM or so. Now, since we stay up and unwind after Feyma gets home, I often don’t sleep until 2 AM or so, and I am usually up by 9 AM. I find, though, that the early morning hours are my most productive, and it just feels good to me to get an early start on my day.  This morning I was awake around 6 AM and it felt good.

Of course, I am not going to go to sleep at 2 AM and get up at 6, but I want to maximize my time with Feyma. That is important to me. So, I will get up around 6 AM to get an early start to my day, and while Feyma is at work I will take a nap to keep up with the sleep that I need. Feyma, I am sure, will continue to sleep until mid-morning so she won’t be too tired when she goes to work, and that is fine with me. For myself, though, getting up earlier just feels better to me, so I will do that, or at least try it out.

Coffee

I roast my own coffee beans. I mostly enjoy coffee beans from various origins in Africa, and also from Indonesia. I currently have maybe 15 or more types of coffee, and I will roast enough to last for a week or so, then the next week I switch to a different origin. Believe it or not, depending on where the beans came from and which farm, the coffee tastes different. I prefer a more acidic coffee, and a fairly light roast.

It seems like coffee just makes the whole office/river activity even more enjoyable.

I got into the whole coffee roasting routine when my friend in the Philippines, Bobby Timora introduced me to the hobby. Thanks, ‘ngay.

How is my routine changing?

Well, my routine is changing in a few ways.

1. For the past year or so I had not been spending much time in the office. My work was concentrating almost exclusively on eBay, and I have my eBay setup in the basement, so I spent more time there. So, now, since I am cutting back on my presence on eBay, I have shifted to spending more time in the office, slowing down my pace a little bit, and generally just enjoying life more.
2. When I was more active on eBay, I would need to go out and buy items to sell on eBay. We would travel at least 3 or more times per week, and spend a lot of time away from home sourcing items to sell. Always being on the run was tiring, and we have more or less completely cutting those type of trips out of our lives. It feels better to have a more manageable lifestyle.

Oops, I just sold something on eBay, so I have to head down to the basement now and pack it up for shipping. 🙂

I hope you have a great day. I intend to!