8 Hours Sleep, 8 Hours Work, 8 Hours Play, That's the Best Way to Live Each Day!

(If you enjoy this shamelessly self-help-themed post, you'll probably like The Life Regime as well, featuring many similarly-themed advice posts aimed to improve your everyday standard of living).

No don't worry, this isn't going to be some kind of dreadful self-help post where I inflict my own way of living upon people who I may not even know. I just thought that I would share my life philosophy with you, guaranteed to improve your standard of living in just one week! 


Yeah, okay, maybe I do sound a bit preachy...


Well, I don't care, as it's my blog and I can do and say what I damn well like. So, let's begin, as I explain The Gent's Life Motto #1:




1) I always sleep for at least 8 hours. As in, asleep by 11pm if I'm getting up at 7am the next day. If I receive less than this amount of sleep, I am grouchy, and prone to not engaging in conversation, and to banging my head accidentally against the wall in The Corridor Crew's Corridor (see C.J.'s blog Verbal Abuse and Dana Umlaut's It's All About M.E. for more info).

2) METATONE! With my breakfast I always take a healthy dose of Metatone. It's designed for if you're recovering from severe colds or flu, or from other illnesses, but if I take it I can honestly work all day without getting worn out or run down.

3) Good Breakfasts! At the moment I eat a small bowl of porridge with blueberries and natural yoghurt, a single slice of toast with a single poached egg, a glass of orange juice and a cup of tea. And before making my breakfast, I down a pint of water for rehydration.

4) Water! I love water. I am actually IN LOVE with water. Swimming in it, bathing in it, drinking it - the full works. I bathe each evening in it (up to one hour [taking up one of my 8 hours of play]), and easily up to 4 pints of it flows down my gullet each day.

5) Work! Lots and lots of work! I bathe in work. I LIVE for work. At GCSE, I piled so much on myself that I should have imploded. I did GCSE German from scratch from the beginning of Year 11 outside of school (hour before school on Mondays and Fridays, and an hour after school every other Friday), I did all three sciences even though I didn't like Science and had no intention of doing any at A-level, I took part in a pilot scheme for Additional Mathematics GCSE, I took part in a fund-raising scheme in order to go on a World Challenge expedition for a month to Africa, and I started up a graphic design company with a few other friends, which required our work every single lunchtime and lots of hours of our free time. I basically did 12 full course GCSEs, had to raise £3500 pounds in 18 months and go on expedition preparation trips, and had to help run a successful local business on the side. And I loved every, single, bloody, insane, minute of it.

I've taken it a bit easier the last couple of years since going to college and starting A-levels, but I still love working above all else. However, I decided that I needed more exercise and recreational time in order to better myself further, and to savour the last little bit of my childhood. And also to prevent me from descending further into my MUSTALWAYSBEWORKING insanity.  Thus, to this effect, I started living by the motto in the title. Which leads me on to:

6) 8 hours of play each day. Now, for me, this includes an hour in the bath, the hour in the morning getting ready, the hour it takes to get to college, and the hour it takes to get back from college. And the 2.5 hours I'll probably spend while at college talking to and relaxing with the members of the Corridor Crew. But that still leaves another 1.5 hours in the evening for watching TV, and going for walks with my two wonderful dogs.

So, my average week day now looks like this:

11pm-7am - Slumber (8 Sleep Hours)

7am-8am - getting ready to leave (1 Play Hour [Hey, I like making breakfast and getting washed])

8am-9am - going to college (1 Play Hour [Talking to friends on train/in car counts as play for me])

9am-4:15pm - usually 4.5 hours of work, and 2.5 hours of play (no, I don't know about the other 15 mins either)

4:15-5pm - going home from college (1 Play Hour)

5pm-6pm - relax, and piano practice or dog-walking (if I have an piano exam coming up, my mum has to take them, or they don't get walked) (1 Play hour)

6pm-6:30pm - HOMEWORK TIME (usually shorter tasks and making lists in preparation for later [I love lists!]) (1/2 work hour)

6:30pm-7pm - Dinner Time (1/2 Play Hour)

7pm-8pm - WORK - usually the hardest HW goes here - essays etc. I never spend more than an hour a day doing an essay (The Gent's Life Motto #2) (1 Work Hour)

8pm-9pm - relaxation - BATH TIME (1 Play Hour)

9pm-10pm - more WORK - normally the time for more relaxing work, such as watching French/German news, and doing EngLit work. NEVER Maths though. Maths can only be done in early evening (1 Work Hour)

10pm-11pm - my favourite hour of the day - READING WORK - usually wider reading for EngLit, sometimes French/German novels. I always make sure I have a calming music from EasySleep playing on my MP3 player, and a cup of Camomile tea, and a pint of water, so that I fall asleep straight away at 11 (1 Work Hour)

11pm - Slumber!

And there you have it. 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work, and 8 hours play. My Life. And yes, I'm well aware that university is probably going to screw this all up, and I'll end up having a nervous break-down. But oh well.

I realise straight away that this post has been incredibly self-indulgent. Just ME ME ME, look at how I live!, I like reading!, I do loads of work!, blah blah blah etc. But, quite frankly, if you can't be self-indulgent in your own blog that you yourself made, then where can you be?

Farewell!

The Gent
x