[tempestn]

I'd travel the world, taking in diverse centers of culture, history, and nature. I'd try to learn new languages. I'd do more track days, karting, and Ultimate. I'd buy a shell and try to get back into rowing. I'd play more computer games. I'd play ping-pong, foosball, and board games with my kids. I'd coach kids' sports. I'd go to more plays and concerts. Even movies. I'd volunteer.

Of course I wouldn't do ALL of that, since even without work there are only so many hours in the day. But I certainly wouldn't want for things to do!

[deadbabe]

Some people do all that and still work, you probably just need better time management. You could study a language before work in the morning, and then go row for a bit. Then go to work. Then you could play computer games from 5 to 6, play ping pong with kids from 6 to 6:30, eat a dinner, coach kids soccer from 7 to 8, volunteer open source from 8:30 to 9:30, catch a movie at 10.

[layoric]

If you're wealthy and healthy, and even so only some of that timeline _may_ be possible, most just unrealistic.

>You could study a language before work in the morning, and then go row for a bit.

Ok, gotta be in by 9am, 30-60 minutes commute, 30 minutes learning a language, gotta eat, shower, coffee, get my row boat mounted and at the lake 20 minutes away, prep, do a 20 minute row, back again so realistically you'd need to be up at 6am, not unreasonable.

> Then go to work. Then you could play computer games from 5 to 6

Did you end work at 4pm or work from home, either way that is likely a short day but ok. A lot of people are forced to have commutes or work in a job that can't be remote, not to mention work much longer days. Hell isn't "60 hours is the sweet spot" for a work week now? (quoting Google's founder recent comments).

> play ping pong with kids from 6 to 6:30,

Have enough room to have a ping pong table at home, that must be nice, but yeah doable.

> eat a dinner, coach kids soccer from 7 to 8,

Who cooked dinner? Who cleaned up? That shit doesn't just happen by itself. So you prepped, cooked, ate and cleaned up, wrangled kids into car for soccer, and got the game field ready to play all in 30 minutes? Nope.

> volunteer open source from 8:30 to 9:30,

Game ended on time, kids didn't hang around to talk to team mates, straight in the car, no issues, and less than 30 minutes transport. Nope.

> catch a movie at 10.

30 minutes to get kids to bed, baby sitter on time (and you can afford one), doable at some ages sure. Movies are regularly 90-180 minutes so you're in bed at like 1am? For a 6am start? Again transport not taken into account.

The reason people think you can work 60 hours a week, every week, is because they don't do all the everyday things that need to get done, they have other people to do it. Also rarely do they leave enough gaps in their schedule for other peoples priorities.

[deadbabe]

Assume you WFH, 9 to 5. Commute time is zero. You have a middle class suburban house with a lake in the back. Your partner is a stay at home parent, does not work, just does household tasks and takes care of kids.

You wake up at 7. Quick 15 minute breakfast then push your kayak out to the lake and row 45 minutes on the water.

From 8 to 9, you can study a foreign language (same duration as a university course)

At 5 you can game for an hour and decompress. Then ping pong at 6.

By the time you finish ping pong with kids at 6:30, you’ve spent 90 minutes just playing around. Time for dinner, prepared by your partner. Kids have 25 minutes to get dress for soccer and eat dinner. The soccer field should be no more than 5 minute drive from your home.

After the game ends at 8:30, you could schedule an additional 20 minutes for your children’s frivolity if you like. Once you drive home you can cut down to 30 minutes working on open source stuff. A small sacrifice for their joy.

Send kids to their rooms by 9:30. Let them sleep whenever they feel like as long as they are quiet and in their room. Spend time with your partner and prepare yourselves for the night out.

By 9:45 the baby sitter arrives and you two head out for the movies. A baby sitter can be very cheap if your kids are older, often they are just a high school student doing homework or watching TV while your kids sleep or play. Don’t need a PHD.

You could be home by 1 AM depending on movie length. 6 hours of sleep is good enough, you can do it all again the next day.

It’s very doable, especially if you decide you don’t actually want to follow the same schedule everyday.

[dematz]

This schedule, even as a theory, assumes you work from home and have a partner who does not work and a babysitter? I don't actually know what percent of families that describes, but my guess is it's pretty low

[deadbabe]

Okay but at some point you have to make choices to work toward the life you want, it’s not just going to happen by accident with you chasing whatever you can, and that’s what people don’t understand.

If you want this schedule, prioritize a WFH career and find a partner who wants to stay home and earn enough money to hire a babysitter. If you don’t then this won’t be available to you and it’s your own fault.

[ok_dad]

So simple! Just as easy to do it as saying it right?

[hanspeter]

Exactly, saying it’s the easy part.

But even without a job, you still need energy and motivation. The tax of switching between tasks (or hobbies) doesn’t magically disappear. Neither does the time suck of social media.