In my fourth blog post as part of a Blogtober challenge by Louna from Bursts of Autumn, I will share you a typical day in my life where I volunteer from home.

I volunteer for a neurodivergent recruitment agency called Exceptional Individuals 2 days a week from 11am until 5pm usually on a Monday and a Tuesday, although this can vary if a Monday falls on a bank holiday (in this case, I would volunteer on the Tuesday and the Thursday) or if I want to participate in a Zoom webinar by the agency on a Thursday to keep myself more occupied (therefore, I would volunteer on the Monday and the Thursday). More recently, there was one week where I volunteered from my parents’ house on the Monday and volunteered from my flat on the Wednesday due to having returned to London early as a result of Newport (where my parents live) going into a local lockdown on the Tuesday evening that week. 

Without further ado, here is how I would typically spend a Monday and a Thursday volunteering from home:

I set my alarm for 7.15am on a Monday, but sometimes I wake up before. Regardless of when I wake up, the first things I do are check my social media and e-mails to see what I have missed out on through the night. I also like to have a bit of a YouTube catch up depending on what I fancy watching. I usually stay in bed until around 9am.

At around 9am, I have a shower and get dressed. I then tune into Ken Bruce (or Gary Davies if he sits in for Ken) on BBC Radio 2 and listen to his mid-morning show from the beginning until after the PopMaster phone-in music quiz (the best part of the show). While I listen to Ken or Gary, I attend to the previous day’s washing up, make myself a cup of peppermint tea and sit on the sofa. I continue to check my social media and e-mails. I then have breakfast, take my medication and brush my teeth. If I have laundry to do, I put on one load and then I hang it up on my airers at lunchtime. 

Next, I log onto my MacBook Pro sometime before 11am and check in with my colleagues through the Skype messenger chat feature (I also message them when I go for lunch, return from lunch and finish for the day). The first thing I do for Exceptional Individuals is share some neurodiversity-related articles that I get by e-mail from Google Alerts onto the agency’s relevant groups for autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia (because there is no dedicated ADHD group by my agency, I share any ADHD-related articles to the agency’s main Facebook page). I then do some YouTube-based work such as adding chapters and extra information to the description of the previous week’s Zoom webinar on a Monday. I take part in the occasional webinar on a Thursday. Sometimes I even watch YouTube videos or Netflix shows if they are relevant to what I am working on. For example, I once watched Love on the Spectrum because one of my colleagues asked me to watch it so that I could write a blog post post about it. 

HelloFresh Speedy Sausage Pasta with Spinach and a side dish of Artisan Garlic Bread

Lunchtime for me is at 1.30pm (my fellow colleagues tend to have different lunchtimes depending on when they start and finish). In this time, I do more washing up, put on another load of laundry (I hang that load up after I finish my volunteering) and eat my lunch. Sometimes I make a sandwich from scratch, sometimes I have leftovers of a meal from the day before. I also relax on my couch until I resume my volunteering at 2.30pm.

In the afternoon, I continue adding extra information to YouTube video descriptions if I still have that to do. Other tasks I tend to do are proofread reports that another colleague sends to me and write up blog posts for the agency. 

At 5pm, I finish my volunteering for the day and begin to unwind. I would usually watch some more YouTube videos or play the occasional game of online bingo. At around 6pm to 7pm depending on how I feel, I have my dinner. I also go to local shops after my volunteering sometimes (I sometimes go before volunteering as well). If there is something on TV I particularly enjoy watching, I tend to watch Only Connect on a Monday (I either watch it as it is broadcast at 8pm or catch up on it later in the week if I have a late dinner) or The Good Doctor on a Thursday. 

For the rest of the evening, I check more e-mails and social media updates. I also watch yet more YouTube (sometimes I also watch content on Disney+, Netflix or Amazon Prime Video) or browse the web. From 10pm, I have another shower, brush my teeth again, put my nightclothes on and go to bed.

Louna’s links

Blog: https://burstsofautumn.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BurstsOfAutumn

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burstsofautumn/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/BurstsOfAutumn/_created/