Because I am hungry!
And I don’t mean I’m hungry for the great food my wife or I prepare the evening before, but I am hungry for knowledge and I have to find time to learn, to sharpen my saw.
I get back home by a bit after 6 PM usually when we have dinner altogether. Then we do the rest of the chores and then I spend some time talking with my wife and/or playing with my daughter.
Around half past eight we bath her together (~95% of the time). After this sometimes I have about twenty minutes on my own, but sometimes I still have to complete some chores. Then I put my daughter into her bed and stay next to her bed until she falls asleep.
I felt a bit stressed before, just standing there, but some time ago I realized how great that time is for self-reflection. Next to my daughter I can calm down (not that I am a nervous type) and think about what I did, what I should have done differently, what I am going to change.
Usually it’s around quarter to ten by the time I got back to our room.
A bit more than hour for ourselves and to go to sleep as I try to go to bed around 11 PM so that I can comfortably wake up around 5:30 AM.
In this last hour usually I spend a bit of time on some common activities (looking for a flat and a nanny these days, but it can be planning our next vacation for example), sometimes I can spend a bit of time on my pet projects and I always try to dedicate the last half an hour to read. Something fictional or something about self-improvement. As my energy level is not at its peak it’s better not to read something purely technical.
Considering the above activities I wouldn’t have so much time to learn. So when do I learn?
In the morning I exercise a bit and based on a weekly schedule I read different technical books, write this blog and spend some time on my pet projects. And basically that’s what I do during lunch time as well, including listening to some podcasts or crash course videos to appease my appetite.
Once in a while I go to the canteen to eat with colleagues and I regularly attend coding dojos in lunchtime. But I try not to spend to much time at the canteen (or in the coffee rooms), because I feel I lose time from learning about what is out there.
Oh, I almost forgot. As our offices are in the middle of some forests when the heat is not so unbearable as these days I go out to the forest to have a walk and have lunch with a nice book.
