Lately I’ve been thinking a bit about how much time I have for projects, and how I will have to decline anything new in the near future until I get some things off of my plate. One of my former colleagues used to be fond of saying that his time sums to 1. It was kind of callous when he was saying it, but it is true that time is a zero-sum game. Multitasking is possible but not efficient usually. I did some calculating today of how much free time I can expect to have with all of my commitments.

• 168 hours exist in a week. Starting with the basics.
• 56 hours for sleep, 8 hours a day realistically. Usually I only sleep about 4 hours a night during the week, but I like to give myself the 8 hours anyway. My strange sleep patterns are a subject for another day.
• 40 hours work at ReconRobotics, Inc.
• 5 hours are spent commuting to and from ReconRobotics, Inc.
• 20 hours is how much time I try to spend on my thesis.
• 15 hours in consulting commitments for Base Zero.
• 5 hours in administration for Base Zero.
• 5 hours in time set aside for exercise.
• 3 hours in time set aside for meditation.

All of these points together mean that I really only have about 20 hours left after it all. That is not a lot of time, only about three hours a day on average. In that time I have to get most of my personal professional development, errands and groceries, household work, blogging and anything else.

I think that the time left is a little low, and I really can’t commit to anything more than what I’m doing right now. Usually I have at least a couple hours available for consulting, but I can’t look for new work. Some things that I would like to get done just don’t get done - sometimes I only get caught up on finances every other week instead of every week like I have wanted to, and lately I have been skipping meditation entirely.

Right now I don’t really match all of the planned scheduled time, and some of the more personal goals, like Base Zero work, meditation and thesis work get shorted. One of my goals for May health month will be to spend my time properly.