In a recent article a reader posted the following comment – “Hey, since you FIREd with a young wanted to ask a bit about how you do time management? I am FIRE ready and I tried to take a break of few months. My full day just went into looking at my toddler (2 yrs old) and doing chores around the house. On very rare days when I sat in my room for long duration working on something I felt guilty of not being there with my son or helping enough around the house”.


I thought it will be easier to write a post instead of giving a long reply in the comments section. So here it is. But first, I keep receiving these kind of comments quite routinely and I keep writing about my daily routine every once in a while. So this is the 2026 edition. For previous editions please checkout the links below and you will have an idea of how my daily routine evolved as time passed in FIRE.


So now on to the response to the reader’s comment. My day used to be similar to their’s. I spent a lot of time with my kid when she was younger. Almost 6 hours a day or so. But spending time with my daughter was one of the biggest reasons for me to quit work, so I enjoyed it. That was pretty much how things went until a couple of years ago. Now she is more independent and prefers to spend time with her friends. So time with her is now more like 2-3 hours a day.


Rest of my time pretty much goes into my workouts (about 1-2 hours a day) and house chores (another 1-2 hours a day). A couple of hours go into entertainment like watching TV or spending time with family. Another 2-4 of hours in the usual brush, bath, eat etc. Sleep takes up 8 hours. So I have about 4-6 hours to work on my hobby projects.


I do feel guilty when I am not helping out at home. This is really a thing after retirement. But after a few months of being retired, I found a rhythm where I work when others really don’t need my help (like family out for a walk or shopping or cooking etc). They know how much I hate shopping :). Walking means meeting people on the road which also I avoid (introvert thing). I cause more trouble than help when I am in the kitchen (picky about oil usage, how long to cook or stir etc) so I get kicked out. There are times when my mom is watching her TV serials, dad is watching news, wife is reading a book, kid is with her friends and I quietly sneak out to work on my projects :).


The unfortunate side effect is that I don’t get a continuous block of 4 hours which is what I would prefer so I don’t have to switch context. But I rarely get even a 1 hr block at a time before I get interrupted or I feel guilty that I need to help. That is the way of a retired life :). Back when I was working I was able to easily get 4 hour blocks of uninterrupted time at the start of my career, but eventually as I gained more experience I was involved in more meetings and could not get more than 2 hours of uninterrupted time. So I don’t find the current situation too bad.


To summarize, in a day, I spend on average about

  • 2-3 hours with kid
  • 2 hours on workout
  • 1-2 hours on up keep
  • 2-3 hours on entertainment
  • 3 hours in eating, personal hygiene
  • 8 hours in sleep
  • 4-6 hours on hobby projects


When I say hobby projects, I probably should call it personal time. because I don’t work on projects all the time. Half the time I am watching some latest tech/finance/science related youtube videos :). So I barely work a couple of hours a day on my personal projects really. But I don’t mind it at all. After all, the whole point of retirement is to slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures in life, not for achievements!