I sure hope your W can work with you to iron out a good schedule that works for you. What I found best is consistency so that I could do like you want to do - have my own personal schedule (ie workouts, golf lessons). I know that I always have Wed and Thur without the kids and it sure helps on planning.
Uggh on getting all the financial information together for discovery - I've had to do it multiple times throught the long march to a D. I also come up with values of things before marriage. My W's L is respecting that and not try to split up anything that was not gained during the marriage. What is even worse is coming up with a affidavit budget so the L's know how much you can afford for support.
