100 Hours

Back in April, when I decided to go talk to my then-boss about reneging on the contract I'd signed in February and leaving the job altogether, I'd made this chart:


The basic idea here is that I have 100 hours a week on non-sleep/food related stuff. I've found it pretty helpful way of thinking about my life and what I choose to focus my energies on. It is tracked in school years, so it starts in 2007 (representing the 2007-2008 school year, my first year teaching). 2007-2008 school year was especially hard, where I had basically 1 hr to myself a week. It's closely rivaled the 2012-2013 school year -- that was when I had 4 preps and was crying from stress all the time and had 2 miscarriages. After that, I'd decided that have a max-80% full life is what I want.

Also of note was my prediction of what 2014-2016 would look like: 35 hrs/week spent on Chinese School, up to 15 hrs/week spent at normal school, and 20 hrs/week spent on a combination of taiko, Tisquantum, and gaming. (The un-filled area represented all the non-activity downtime necessary for mental and physical health.

That has been patently Not True, for 2 main factors that I'm slowly figuring out (this is yet another iteration of the process)

Factor 1: THERE IS NO SOLID WORK CHUNK. Unlike being a teacher, where work had a singular focus in the classroom, and where work had a clear 8am-4pm period, my current job isn't a solid 40 hour work week, but rather four 10-hour work chunks, each interwoven and headed in often divergent directions. I'm no longer a "teacher". I'm a hr manager, an accountant, an administrative assistant, a layout designer, a principal, and 3 project managers. I don't have an easy solution for this, but I think realizing this is going to help me begin to be more effective and satisfied at work.

Factor 2: TUMBLR HAS SPLIT MY SOCIAL/CREATIVE ENERGIES. When I made the chart, my social activities included gaming and taiko, and my creative activity was exclusively taiko.

Here's a breakdown of the social and creative activities that I now do on tumblr:
Social:
- keep up with 3-5 Real Life friends
- keep up with 3-5 new Internet Friends
- maintain a fandom presence (stalk fandom people, reblog shit on fanblog, organize a fandom Yuletide for some reason)

Creative:
- draw fanart and fan comics
- let's read Jinyong
- translation of dad's book
- comic analysis stuff on learningtocomic

That's pretty complicated! Not to mention being on tumblr has changed my media consumption urges -- now I feel like I "have to" read certain fanfics, or watch certain TV shows. I know that's not true -- fandom is never an obligation. But I guess what I need to figure out is how to consolidate. Cut down on some sideblogs. Figure out the bare minimum necessary to keep the fandom community connection and creative outlet, without it taking over so much of my life.

Today I made the following chart, which I think will help:

WORK: 40 hrs/week
--> manager stuff: 10 hrs
--> project-specific word: 15 hrs
--> administrative: 5 hrs
--> misc/other school: 5 hrs

CREATIVITY: 20 hrs/week
--> Tisquantum
--> fan comics

ACTIVITIES: 10 hrs/week
--> family dinner: 2 hrs
--> comics club: 2 hrs
--> taiko: 6 hrs

SOCIAL: 15 hrs/week
--> tumblr
--> real life friends

This leaves 15 hrs for mental/physical health, (and husband hangouts!). And I think seeing it this way helps put the tumblr stuff in perspective -- the time I spend on fan comics is time I'm not spending on Tisquantum, and the time I spend on tumblr should not impinge on other aspects of my life (such as work, or creativity).

Anyways, this is still an ongoing process of figuring out where the next chunk of time is headed. There's the deeper underlying questions of "what do I want to do with life?" and "babby????" that remain unanswered, but at least I feel like I'm on slightly firmer ground.

I've found this 100 Hours thing a pretty helpful mental exercise. And now I'm curious how other people spend their 100 hours.