Time Management and Single Motherhood

In my perpetual quest to get myself temporally organized, I tried a stint at time tracking recently and, yes, gave up because I wasn't learning anything I didn't already know.*  But for the week or so I attempted this exercise, it became abundantly clear, as it always does, there's not much in the way of open time in my schedule.  Because I'm a single working parent.  Other work I've been reading (i.e. Burnout) makes it clear that if folks have less than two hours of leisure in a day they don't feel great....and even if I generously understand leisure that is ALWAYS TRUE IN MY LIFE.  So while it may technically be true that we all have 168 hours in a week, we do not all share the same temporal privilege.   And outsourcing, through which one trades money for time, is only available to those with economic privilege.  There's only so much "time management strategies" can do with structural inequality.

The point here is not woe-is-me.  I'm at a relatively good moment in my life.  But a real epiphany in terms of why I always feel like I don't have enough time (even as I've scaled back my work responsibilities, and the nature of my parenting responsibilities have changed as a result of growing kids).  I actually don't have enough time.

Here's where I leave you with a day in the life from my recent experiment (on Monday, which is an evening I can mostly claim for myself, as Tiny Boy has an obligation).

7 am:  awake, feed cats, get TB breakfast, make coffee, drink coffee and read

8 am:  help TB with meds, lunch making, out the door; 20 minute walk on treadmill while watching work-related video

8:30ish: work (research and teaching tasks) + breakfast

10:00: quick shower, make lunch

10:30: leave for campus; office hrs + back-to-back classes [I eat lunch during office hrs/ course prep and have a 30 minute window to walk between buildings, go back to my office and gather up my things to leave campus immediately after last class]

5:00: leave campus to pick up TB

5:30: home, make dinner [I don't remember what this was?  Maybe leftover chicken and veggies?]

6:15: take TB to theater rehearsal, where I meet up with a friend for a walk

7:00: home alone; listen to music, practice Yiddish on Duolingo; call my mother; do household chores; order some groceries for delivery on Tues

8:15: go back to pick up Tiny Boy; home for protracted bedtime routine [getting a snack and reading books]; feed cats

9:30: Tiny Boy is finally in his room with lights out; get ready for bed + watch TV (I don't remember what exactly but I am watching a cooking show and also Mad About You)

10:30 lights out for me, though it takes a while to fall asleep

* I do think it would useful for me to track ONLY a particular task, like email or housework, to find out what I'm doing, but I need to track my time so closely (like 5-10 minute increments) to learn about these habits that it becomes onerous.