Daily Routine (after Driving)

I have been reading here for about a month. I expect to start school in mid January. My question is about the daily routine. I believe I understand that every day has potential to be quite different with new challenges. I get that. What I have some concerns about is after driving. I read a lot last week about parking difficulties and challenges. So here is what I would like to hear discussed.

1. What is the best daily routine to find parking? In a best case scenario would you start early and find parking early? (I understand that loading, waiting, weather, traffic, etc., etc., are part of the routine that changes everything.) That said if I am loaded and plenty of miles to drive for the next 3 days what you say would maximize my days, rest, fun, etc.?

If you can you start early so you can end you shift around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. But then again sometimes that can't be done due to pickup and delivery times. There is no "How To" books about trucking. You have to learn to be Flexible and Adjust and Adapt. I believe some covert ops teams in the military uses that saying also. Even so it holds true in trucking

Yeah, Guyjax is totally right on two points: start early and park early if you can, and there is no "best way" of making the most of your time.

Everyone is totally different when it comes to how they manage their time and what works for them. I was always a morning person so I tried being up and running between 2:00-3:00 a.m. and being parked by dinner time. Of course that worked sometimes but not all that often. Other people can't stand getting up early so they'd rather run at night and sleep in if possible. Again, not easy to find anything consistent unless you're on a dedicated run with a set schedule.

Then of course you have traffic, weather, logbook , and scheduling concerns which will throw the best laid plans into a blender and chew em up.

There are so many variables that it really just takes a bunch of experience to learn how you like to do things out there. The one thing I can say for certain is try to stay as far ahead of schedule as possible in order to have time to spare for breakdowns, traffic, weather, and other unforeseen circumstances. If you get a run with plenty of extra time, run it hard and get as close to the delivery point as possible as early as you can. Maybe they'll take the delivery early so you can grab another load and go. More money for you! If not, you've gotten the bulk of the work out of the way and now you can comfortably relax knowing you're right on their doorstep.