leave work at a reasonable hour

Still bright summer nights and a lighter seasonal workload have helped me initiate the habit of leaving work around 5 pm. The key will be maintaining this routine in the fall.
Of course I got home at 8 pm tonight, but as long as its not every night, its okay.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a tag hanging on a lavender bike with training wheels that said, “Long hours are hazardous to your LIFE.”
Balancing working overtime with having a full life has been a problem I’ve struggled with for years, through different jobs. It’s time to finally figure it out and devote more time to going out, cooking good dinners, dating, making art and seeing day turn to night.

I’m still going to try to get out of the office, as soon as I can, every day, but I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll be working hours of unpaid overtime, every week, as long as I’m at my current job. If I want to get anything else done, with my life, I’ll have to dump the “stop staying up so late” goal, too. It’s not as if I’m even making an effort, anymore, in either case.

Thanks so much, kyoken (“Ken”), for inviting me to this very, very important goal. I’m glad we’ll be doing this as a team, because I’m as keen on getting you out of the office, every night, as I am on getting myself out.

This goal is key to my achieving any of my other goals. I just can’t get anything done if I drag myself home from the office, every night, only to pass out at the dinner table. I spend most of my week-ends catching up on sleep. There has to be more to life than this.

I must stay that I’ve improved, over the past year, having cut a 65-70 hour week down to 50-55 hours. This isn’t too bad, but, still, I have other stuff to do! So, I’m determined to cut back ever further.

I’d define a “reasonable hour” for me as nine hours after clocking in. I came really close to that, yesterday, and I’m going for it, again, today. If I’m forced to stay longer, from now on, I’m taking the extra hours out of the next day, by sitting at my desk and writing 43 entries (as I’m doing, now). Or maybe I’ll do that, anyway.