To ask what you do 'around' work?

[BlackBean2023]

If you work full time and have a good/great work-life balance what do you do around working hours?

I work in the office most of the time though could work from home more with better planning. I have a cleaner once a week which is a godsend.

I walk the dog early every morning but otherwise my non-working time is spent ferrying various kids to various places or wasted watching crappy TV. My self care is shocking. I don't eat well and have started putting weight on- could really do with losing a stone.

Tomorrow feels a bit like a fresh start so I'm keen to start a new routine/new little habits... help me MNetters!?

We only walk the dog at the weekends. He has a dog walker on weekdays since I went back to ft work. Now it's lighter I might start taking it in turns with dh to walk him in the evenings though. We leave for work at 7:30 and get home at 6pm.

I don't do anything before work - I get up at 6:40 already and that's early enough! Dh and I share the cooking, but he does more than me as he really enjoys it. After that, we sometimes play a board game, then usually watch a series with ds (dd is at uni). I normally knit while watching.

Ah, I do love a board game but not sure the family would play with me! DH is a gamer (not a board gamer!) and DD16 is...well,16!

I work from home a few days and on site a couple of days. I work out every day, take the dogs out once or twice when I'm at home. I meet up with friends a couple of times a week, cook, read, study (masters), go to the cinema or to watch football most weeks, care for my parents to give their partners some respite, volunteer a few times a week, watch a bit of tv and go out for meals and drinks with my husband once a week or so.

A workout (strength on tv) after the school run before WFH x

i wfh (but I don’t have one of these mythical wfh jobs that half of mumsnet seem to have where they have finished their work by 10am Wednesday and spend the week doing other stuff!) - mine is full on, 8.30-5 mon-fri.
I’m quite routine driven in the week- every morning I get up at 6, sort out the animals, dh does the children in the mornings and I will either go for a run or workout, then walk the dog. I log on at 8.30. On my one office day I leave at 8 and drop the dog at daycare.

i pick up from school at 3.15, log off at 5, then every evening is either kids football, dog training, slimming world, other domestic stuff, I cook, I tidy up, put kids to bed, baths etc. and walk the dog. Finally sit down at 9, ideally I’d go to bed at 9.30 but most nights it’s more like 10.30. Weekends we do more football, catch up the week and repeat.

I’m very lucky that dh and I split the child responsibilities equally and I can have an hour in the morning to workout/exercise. I’d never do it after work. The weekends are busy but we both manage to get a run or two, and sort the dc. We don’t really do other things such as days out or meals out and we don’t really go out by ourselves or date nights.

A lot of my out of work time is spent ferrying kids, housework etc, I think that's kind of the norm.

I'm not amazing at the self care either, but I have started to implement a couple of good habits -

Always going for a walk at lunch time, 30 mins (and sometimes I manage to bag a 90 min lunch break so go for longer walk). Quite often go out in the evening as well, especially now the evenings are lighter.

Do something strength training wise in the evening - I've found a few simple kettlebell exercises can be done at the same time as watching some crap tv

batch cook as much as i can manage to minimise the amount of crap i consume whilst wfh.

In your place I'd make a concerted effort to be more organised and wfh more (if organisation is the sticking point), it frees up so much time.

I WFH but also have to travel to meetings 1-2 days a week. I am up around 6am and go for a swim at 7am in the local pool twice a week and do a home workout 3 days either mon-Fri or at the weekend if I have to travel. In the evenings I watch tv for a couple of hours & then read for 1-2 hours after cooking dinner & cleaning up etc.
weekends is usually one day of chilling & prep for the week ahead (washing etc.) and one day we will go out for lunch and maybe a gallery or museum. We live in London so it’s pretty easy to find stuff to do!

I changed my working times at work.

I go to the gym three times a week.
On Sundays when I don’t work- I on a group pick with my fellow litter wombles.

At home, I read, listen to podcasts, play computer games.

We don’t have kids so it’s probably not very applicable. However during the week we take the dog for a walk each evening. I go to the gym 4/7 nights. Sports club one night. Zumba one night. Volunteering one night. I’m also doing a part time degree so do a lot of work in the evening.

Husband does DnD when I’m out and then we split the chores between us in between.

Walking probably isn’t enough if you’re putting on weight and you’d admit you don’t eat well.
I work 25 hours but don’t have a cleaner and have one 5 year old.
I go to the gym three/four times a week. I eat a healthy balanced diet which is easy if I meal plan and eat healthy snacks like nuts and fruit and try to drink water.
My me time is reading, watching crap tv and scrolling 😂 or the gym I guess!

Walk the dog.
Meet up with friends (and their dogs).
Go out for breakfast, or coffee/cake, or lunch. Normally with the dogs
I used to horse ride but my instructor stopped and there's nowhere within a reasonably distance that does it anymore, which really sucks.

Most of my hobbies/free time is spent at home or indoors though, as I work outdoors during the week (dog walker) so I like having my down time to relax an recharge a bit.

I'm a single parent, I don't do any ferrying around for my 16yo, we have a great bus service and he's got legs. Makes life easier. Obviously depends where you live though.

I work from home 3 days a week. Usually do cleaning in the evenings on wfh days so I don't have to do it at the weekend. Never had a cleaner. Don't have any pets that need walking, I can't be arsed with that! I keep rodents which I love.

I go to the gym a couple of times a week, with DS being 16 he can be left home alone when I go.

oh no, I'm going to have to join a gym to shift this stone aren't I!? That seems to be a common theme...

I'm going to book a hairdresser appointment this week - last one was October!

I (mostly) stopped watching tv in the evenings, unless we're all watching something together. Instead I go for a walk and listen to a library audio book. I try and move chores around so I get out whenever the weather is half decent. I also try and walk for 20 mins before sitting down to work on wfh days.
I find that being outside in daylight makes a massive difference to my mental health. And I can't snack constantly, which I tend to do when watching tv.

No.
Walk the dog for an extra walk each day and you will loose weight. That is a much better and cheaper start- 1 hour at the gym could be 1 hour walking the dog. You can do it while waiting for your children at various places ?

I have a 9-5 job, office or wfh.

As DD needs to leave the house at 7.30am, we are all up and running by 7am, have breakfast together and I start on things like laundry, paperwork, puting a bread on, putting dry washing away. Some days I will sit down and read a book.

One hour lunch which I should start using to get out of the house again and then I log off at 5pm, have some me-time before I sort out dinner and do whatever is needed.

DH uses the time before starting work doing Scout stuff (he is a leader) or works on the backlog of paper files we are digitalising.

Reading

Crafts - at the moment I’m into diamond painting but I also enjoy watercolour painting and cross stitch. It’s very therapeutic and I always listen to a podcast when crafting

I freelance around my FT job to pay for “extras” and have complicated caring responsibilities for family members.

Around that, I potter in the garden, try to do one structured exercise class a week, read and go for a quick walk after work everyday. I’m a fan of little and often when it comes to anything needing free time.

I also spend an excessive amount of time overthinking things, which is unproductive and unhealthy. I’m working on this!

Weekday evenings I do a mix of yoga, audiobooks, therapy, pub with DH, occasionally meet friends for a meal.

I walk the dog
Read
Do puzzles
Quizzes
Watch tv
Listen to podcasts
Visit family
Watch films with family
Play board games together

Occasionally I
Meet friends or adult children for coffee or lunch
Go to comedy shows
Go out for a meal with dh
Go out for a few drinks/dance

I wfh from 0830 to 5 as well - but not one of these mythical wfh jobs where I can do the school run at 3.15 🤣

Sorry, that’s not intended meanly, but your comment really really made me laugh.

We have to pay for after school clubs (still cheaper than commuting!) so that I can wfh without impossible interruptions and I usually still end up having to log off early and go back later in the evening to finish off.

I’m reading this for ideas, I’m trying to get out in the fresh air more at the moment, but still struggling to juggle things to get the free time people are talking about.

not much tbh

I go to a sports class with colleagues after work once a week.
exercise on my own or with teens the other day.

my work is very full on, I need down time to recharge myself.
if I didn't exercise I would sit on the sofa eating junk and

I run/swim/cycle/go for walks/do Pilates and I’m about to upgrade my swimming membership to a full gym one as I miss lifting.

DH is a morning person so he usually takes the early slot for exercise and I’ll use the evenings. If we’ve got a busy evening, he’ll get up at 5 or before to train before I do.

I WFH one day so use my ‘lunch break’ to swim (my job has set hours to some extent but my boss is quite happy for us to take a long lunch and start early/work late).

I try to cycle to work and back (about 25 miles total, off road/mountain biking) once per week.

I have one running club night per week (and DH coaches another evening) but if it doesn’t fit in, I skip it and run another time. I try to do around 3 runs in the week. I often run home from something we do as a family (going swimming or a walk somewhere or whatever) at the weekend.

Pilates is just a hastily squeezed in Move with Nicole YouTube video.

If all else fails and I feel knackered, I just go for a brisk walk after the kids are in bed which is much nicer now it’s getting lighter!

I’m bloody lucky that DH runs a business and does most school and nursery runs.

I run parkrun on a Saturday morning before teen ds is awake, and I run one lunchtime in the week.

I wfh four days a week so usually try to spend another lunchtime pottering in the garden or watering the greenhouse. It's brilliant for stress. Other home days I put washing on before work and then hang it out at lunchtime so no washing at weekends means more relaxing time.

I do a martial arts class at the weekend.

I disagree about the gym- if you want to lose weight it’s diet and calorie counting (to an extent). You’d be better spending time meal prepping healthy food. However exercise is so beneficial for physical and mental health.

I crochet and knit as my hobbies. I love theatre but logistics mean I don’t go as much as I’d like to.