Happy September 1st!
I guess it’s safe to finally flip my calendar over, right?
I call September’s calendar my race inspiration calendar. I have two 20 milers, two 5ks, and one 15k to get me through the month. I believe I’ll need all the inspiration I can get. 
This morning I hit the gym with a mission to finally figure out how to use the kettlebells I’ve been eyeing for the past couple of weeks.
Thanks to all your of wonderful suggestions last Wednesday, I found a work out on the Self website that I was able to print and bring to the gym as a source of reference.
I started with a 20 minute session on the elliptical. Nothing too tough, just enough to warm the muscles up and give me a chance to zone out with a trashy magazine. 
I ended up doing two sets of the Self work out alternating between 10 lb and 12 lb Kettlebells.
The moves were slightly awkward to execute because of the swinging of the kettle ball and how it is gripped in the process, but I could still feel the burn. I have a feeling my arms, back, and abs are going to be sore in the morning, in fact, they already feel a bit sore now. I wish my gym offered a class with kettle balls, so that I could be assured I was doing the moves properly.
I would also love to purchase my own set of kettle balls for home. That way I could watch all the great online tutorials everyone recommended with the kettle ball in hand. Trying to watch and make sense of them before hand with out the kettle ball was pointless with my memory made of goo.
After a quick shower I was on my way to work and ready for breakfast.
Cereal (Kashi Flakes, Kashi Go Lean Crunch, Kashi Puffs)
Fresh Figs
Oikos!
Don’t forget the Oikos!
Delicious
I have another 10 hour day ahead of me. Luckily this day is full of meetings which will hopefully allow the day to move by a little faster.
I found it interesting how many of ya’ll work 10+ hour days every week! That’s amazing! Especially all the nurses out there who work 3 12 hour days! My Mom is a nurse in the recovery room at the hospital back home, but was spoiled to have never worked such long shifts. Instead she works 8 hour shifts 5 days a week from 6 – 3 I think?
I actually wouldn’t mind having a schedule like that. I am a morning person, so I being able to go into work super early and leave early would be amazing. Working the same hours as everyone else is never fun because I have to find ways to creatively squeeze things in like going to the bank (which opens on my way into work and closes when I leave – booo) or going to the doctors into my day.
What would be your ideal work schedule?
Of course ideally I would be working from home on my own schedule. Doing something I love for 10 or 12 hours a day wouldn’t be bad as long as I wasn’t chained to a desk and had the freedom to take breaks and go for a run to split it up a bit.
{ 50 comments… read them below or add one }
I used to work 12 hour days 5 days a week at an ad agency and it was terrible. Working an 8:30-5 job now that allowed me to go to grad school at night is the best way to go minus the fact that everyone else works the same schedule like you said and it’s harder to get to things. I wouldn’t mind working a longer day though if it meant that I’d be working from home and could take breaks whenever I wanted to, but I’d still like time at night to do my own thing like karate classes.
Random question: where did you make your calendar? It’s awesome!
I made it in iPhoto on my Mac! LOVE the program!
Good to know, thanks!
I actually really like my current work schedule. I don’t go in until around 1 p.m., and then, depending on what we’ve got going on, can finish anywhere between 7 and midnight (usually I’m done by 9 at the latest.) And I typically leave around 5 to go and walk Bowser and eat dinner. It works out well.
At my old job, I was at my desk by 7:30 a.m. at the LATEST (usually around 7) and didn’t leave until 6 at the EARLIEST. Lunch breaks were frowned upon. It was a seriously toxic work environment. I did that for two years, and I respect people who love their jobs enough to put up with a work schedule like that.
Of course, the ultimate goal would be to become famous for doing nothing, and still make a ton of money just for letting MTV/TLC cameras follow me around.
haha I think being a reality star would be the ultimate dream.
My ideal work would definetly be from home – I wqouldn’t care how many hours, just being at home would do!
LOVE that breakfast!
I like my work schedule, I work 7-330, which means I get to the gym at least a half hour before most of the crowds.
I think I’d like the freedom to work from home, but I also like socializing with my officemates. Ideally, I’d love a job that didn’t involve sitting at a desk for too long, but those are kind of hard to come by.
I work 9 hour days and get every other Friday off. Working 8 hour days is great, but my day off is waaayy better. Though f I could work from home 2 days a week, I would give up the day off.
Since I take classes, I usually have to be in the office super early. I would rather come in later. For some odd reason, if I sleep till about 7:15, I feel infinitely better than when I get up at 6 or even 6:30 no matter how much sleep I got. Weird, right?
I do love that calendar. I’m hoping for a mac for Christmas! I think I’ve asked for it every year since my Junior year of college. As for my schedule. I work 12-15 hour days since I work for a political campaign, which I love but it’s 7 days a week. I think I could work 12-15 hour days knowing that when the weekend comes i’m free as a bird.
Also check out your gym’s boot camp class, the one at my gym uses kettlebells!
I’ve done that SELF workout before too! I can’t exactly remember how it went, but I remember it being slightly awkward, and remember being sore the next day!
I’d like to work 8 to 5 or, really, any daytime shift. (I work 1 p.m. to midnight.) But you bring up a good point about making appointments or running errands that have to be done during business hours. I think I’m a morning person, but getting off work so late makes it hard.
Ideally, I would be working part-time somewhere and working on the blog. I would like to have a job where I can go in at 9 or 10 and get off around 2 or 3. I currently work 8-5 M-F, and I feel like I can’t ever do anything else. I snuck out of the office briefly yesterday to go pick up a meat order from a rancher who was only delivering in town at 4. Thankfully it was during an office party, so nobody noticed I was gone. I don’t know what I’ll do for the other deliveries though.
I work 9 hour days and have every other Friday off. It’s a pretty sweet gig. I <3 3-day weekends. Ideally, I'd be only working part time. One of the other gals in the office works from 9-1 so she can take her kids to school and be there to pick them up after. That would be pretty nice if I could afford only working part time. A girl can dream, right?
I work 11 hr days with a 1:30 commute tagged on to both sides! I wake up at about 3:30 am and don’t get home until about 7:00 pm, just enough time to eat and pass out! Only 4 days a week though, the 3 day weekend sometimes makes up for the lack of free time during the week
Oh and did I mention I work on an island? So you can forget about getting errands done!
Whoa! I think you win for longest work day ever
We have kettel bells at my gym that I am going to start doing more often after Chicago! You should see the girls at my gym they are RIPPED!!! I just want to work from home
My work week is different depending on the week but I typically work a 9-10 hour day. Everyday.
You get used to it – I work with college students so at least they keep me on my toes.
I’ve been stuggling with my work schedule for the last year. I work as a consultant who fly out every Sunday to work and get home on Thur night. This means I have to fit 40 hour in 4 days with catching a flight on Thur. It ends up 12 to 15 hour day and a short day on Thur. Plus catching up some work on Friday. Not to mention the 10 to 20 hour spent flying every week.
glad youfound them on self, they always ahve videos and pics of great workout moves!
I’d love to have a work day that started earlier and finished in early afternoon, 8-4 maybe? I’m much more of morning person and I hate getting home late and feeling like my time to be productive for myself is almost gone.
I currently work about 12 hours a day, if you count the 1.5 hour commute. Compared to that, even working 8 hours a day would be fantastic!
My dream job would be to just be at home with my daughter. Right now I work as a nurse doing 12 hour shifts. I like my job, but the 12 hours are draining!
My best work schedule happened to be when my daughter played softball, so I never missed a game. My schedule was 7:00 to 3:45 – I was home by about 4:10 every day and never missed those crazy 4:30 games that they scheduled.
I could actually still spend two hours making dinner and we still at around 6 too!
Sometimes I like my strange hours and sometimes I’d prefer to be on a schedule with most other people. As a musician, I start teaching lessons after kids come home from school and then often I have a rehearsal from 7-10 at night. On the plus side my mornings are free to practice and exercise but on the negative side I have concerts most weekend nights so I get very few days completely off.
I would love to work from home too. I currently work a normal 9-6 desk job, but being at home would allow for way more flexibility. Plus traffic wouldn’t even be an issue!
I spy your baby in the Sept calendar, precious. That’s adorbs.
My ideal schedule would be no work, haa, but I would rather work 10 hour days M-T with Friday off, wouldn’t that be great to always have a 3 day week?!
My ideal work schedule would be like 10am-4pm. Of course, that would be considered full time as well! I could sleep in, work out in the morning, go to work, then be home with enough time to enjoy life.
I used to work 10-11 hours days at least at my old job. The only crappy part was that I never knew when I was going to get out of work so it made planning things impossible! I also hated my job, so that made it even harder.
Luckily I just started my own business so I’ll be making my own schedule (only one 40 hour week left!) I’m so excited to be able to have time (and energy) to cook, clean and work out!! YAY!
Kettle balls freak me out a bit. Bravo for trying them!
I work my ideal schedule! 8-2, straight 6 hours, 30 hours a week. GASP! Yes, I don’t work 40 hours a week. 30 works better so I asked about it and my office was very flexible for me. Now I have time to take care of myself and my family better
I also HATE taking lunch breaks. Why do I want to waste a whole hour when I can work right through and get home an hour earlier?! 30 minutes might be alright, but definitely hate an hour.
My mom is a nurse and does 3, 12 hour days (that usually end up being 14 hours) and it’s hard work! My ideal schedule would be being able to make my own
I would love to work 4 days a week.
Well my IDEAL work day would just be working 20 hours a week at home
Not realistic, I know.
I currently work 8 hours a day from 10-6, and it’s actually perfect for me. I love consistency and I have a regular routine with this schedule which I like.
I would prefer an early start in the morning, ’cause I’m a morning person, but I guess my schedule will be really weird, after I become a veterinarian.
I admire how my mom can be at work for 24 hours straight, with a little sleep and a really stressful job, treating people and all
In regards to the Kettlebells, I’ve purchased mine along with several DVDs from Target. I started with a 10lb bell and intro DVD from the GoFit line – the instructor in those worked with the actors in 300. I actually found it too challenging to execute proper form at first with 10lb, so I went on a hunt for a smaller bell. I ended up purchasing the Kettlenetics kit for $30. It came with a 4lb bell and 3 DVDs, which I thought were great for a beginner. I worked my way up to the 10lb and now rotate through all the DVDs for a variety.
I’d also LOVE to work from home… right now I work 9ish to 7ish on average but maybe 8-4 would be good for some of the same reasons you have.
Hey Meghann,
All this work/career talk has got me curious. I am a researcher at a university, and while I am pretty passionate about my subject matter, I don’t ‘love’ my job. However, the work environment around here expects us to live and love our jobs. I’ve been reading your blog since your first marathon, and I’ve always been curious if you worry about all the negative-work-talk you publish. I don’t think you really dislike your job, but you often have countdowns to getting done with work, complain about work, etc. Do you ever worry in this economy that, in the event your company needs to let someone go, these published, public attitudes will reflect poorly on you?
Please understand I’m not being judgemental and I don’t think you deserve to lose your job. I’m just curious!
I guess I never realized how negative I am on here. I think it’s the same with every office setting – there are lows and there are highs, there are busy weeks and there are down weeks, etc.
I’m very open about the blog at my work, but I’m not 100% sure how much people read it around here. I’ve always said the moment anyone says anything to me about it then I will stop mentioning my job on here and stop talking about the blog at work. *knock on wood* so far so food.
You’re right through, just with every person in this economy out there I worry about my job each and everyday. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Hey, I did kettlebells this morning, too. I love it! I have a good video. Also, Woman’s Health (September issue) has a really good kettlebell workout. Give it a try. When do you leave for NYC? I’m in NJ.
Last semester, I had a school schedule that let me have Friday-Monday off. If I could ever work that out again I would.
Up until 2 weeks ago, I was a nanny of a family for 4 years and they had me working 10.5 hour days, 4 days a week. It was EXHAUSTING. By the time Saturdy would roll around, I’d be ready to sleep all weekend. The kids weren’t allowed to watch TV or movies, so they were a handful. But my ideal work schedule would be to make my OWN work schedule! Be my own boss, ya know what I mean?
Hah I’m always amazed when people DON’T work 10 to 12 hour days, 6 to 7 days a week. I saw that workout, too, and wanted to try it until I realized I had no idea what kettleballs were! Maybe my gym has some, too.
I would love to work from home as well!! I honestly think that our society would be happier and more productive if we worked less than 8 hours, but I suppose that isn’t realistic. Someday I hope to be a stay-at-home mom, so then I would be working from home then!
I’m an RN and looovve my 3 12 hour shifts. I work full time nights, but still feel like I get to stay at home with my kids, they don’t have to go to daycare, etc.
Sometimes the 12 hours drag by but most shifts go by fast. I would HATE having to work 5 days a week!
I highly recommend purchasing kettlebells, they’re fantastic to have at home. I got my set at Target for a great price.
My ideal work schedule would involve working from home. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not an office type of girl. I don’t mind it, but it’s so tedious after awhile. My background is in creative writing, so ideally, I’d be able to work at home on a book, and maybe bartend for some supplemental income. (I actually love bartending!)
I love being a nurse and working 12 hour shifts. I love being a nurse because I love what I do and I love my patients knowing that I am making a difference in helping them achieve their ultimate outcome after surgery and all of the teaching I get to do.
Another perk of being a nurse? I work 12 hour shifts three days a week and have four days off to do whatever I want to with. Most of the time I just do my three 12′s and then have four days off in a row to recover. I’m tired but it’s definitely worth it
I’m a teacher. I get to work at 6:45 each day and leave somewhere between 5 and 6. I usually bring some work home with me and grade papers or plan all weekend. I can’t complain, though, since I get plenty of holidays and all summer off!
Before you buy kettlbells, you should try to find a class to take! Seriously.
Also, if you really started using kettlebells you would find that a 10lb bell would get too light pretty quickly!
I would be happy if I could get a Saturday or Sunday off now and then! And I’d love to not have to work every Christmas!
I wish I had a Mac!