As an independent artist and writer, I’m blessed at the moment to be able to set my own schedule. Because of that, I don’t really have a set schedule from day to day. However, I do have some typical activities that I do daily and I try to keep on as much of a schedule as I can, mainly because having my days planned out allows me to keep on track and also helps to curb a good bit of anxiety for me. I just like knowing what’s going to happen in my day!
A “typical day” in my life begins around 6-6:30 a.m. Lately I’ve been trying to get in the habit of getting up and going for a walk in our neighborhood if the weather is nice, or doing a workout video in the living room if it’s rainy or nasty outside.
After a walk or workout, I have yogurt and a piece of fruit, then head out to run to the barn and feed the horses. Driving to the barn takes around 10-15 minutes, depending on traffic and whether I hit every light on red through town.
Our horses usually spend the night outside in the dry paddock, unless the weather is really cold/wet/windy, in which case we bring them into the stalls for the night. If the horses are out, I bring them into their stalls to eat their morning grain. While they’re eating, I go out into the paddock and open the gates to the fields, check the water troughs, and clean up any manure in the run-in shed and paddock.
Hopefully, by now I’ve checked out the weather forecast for the day and decided if the horses need blankets, rain sheets, fly sheets, or fly masks. If not, then I pull the weather up while I’m at the barn and look at the forecast. Horses get “dressed” appropriately for the weather and their coat conditions, and out they go to eat in the field until dinner time. After the ponies are out, I do any cleaning up in the barn that needs done, reset feed, then lock up and head back home.
What I do when I get back home depends greatly on the day. If I have a blog post that needs to be written, then I try to do that as soon as I get back home and get it posted as early as I can. Ideally, I have blog posts written a few days beforehand, but that doesn’t always work out! It’s been especially hard to get things drafted ahead of time with the pandemic going on, but I’m starting to get back into the groove this month. This is also the time I spend answering emails, updating accounting, and packing up any online store orders I may have that need to go out.
I eat lunch around 11 a.m. Yes, I know that’s pretty early for a lot of people, but I also get up at 6 so I tend to be hungry by 11 and feeling ready to put some fuel in my body to tackle the afternoon.
On a typical day, I’ll spend the afternoon doing art or whatever other work needs to be done, like editing a YouTube video, writing social media posts, etc. I most like to spend my time creating more art, of course, but sometimes other tasks need to be done! On Mondays and Thursdays, however, I have dogs that I regularly walk so I leave after lunch to take care of them. This is also the time when I try to do any errand-running that needs done, as well, since I’ll be out of the house and up in the next city north of where we currently live.
I’m usually back at home by 2:30-3 on Monday and Thursday, depending on how much I needed to do while I was out. If I get back early, then I do some more art or administrative tasks for a bit. Most days my best friend will feed the horses their dinner when she gets off work, unless we’re riding after dinner, in which case we’re both there and do feeding together.
I work until my husband and I get hungry for dinner. Then one of us cooks, we eat dinner, and the rest of the evening is usually spent sitting on the couch watching YouTube videos while he plays video games. Unless, of course, I’m out riding! I try to get to bed between 8-9 p.m., depending on how tired I am and when I get back from the barn if I’m out having pony time.
Wow, I can’t believe how long that post got! It’s amazing that I never really thought much about my daily routine until I sat down to write this post. I don’t know if anyone found it interesting at all, but if you did then I’m glad!
I’d say that out of my daily routine, the top three things I look forward to the most are seeing the horses/riding, working on art, and spending time with Byron in the evening after dinner.
What do you look forward to the most in your daily or weekly routines? Let me know in the comments!
