Covenants alternative lab routines

Hi,
has anyone come up with any other alternative laboratory routines?

Covenants mentions that a few magi manage to have fairly normal lives outside of the lab while others become dedicated and rarely leave it. From what I can tell there is no penalty for a magus doing the "bare minimum" of lab work and spending the rest of his day outside the lab. My magus needs something a little more than this - he has his lab in the covenant but spends two seasons in a nearby town. I am trying to come up with a routine where he can live in his town house, be seen by the servants etc. and then LoH to the lab for an hour or so, LoH home for a bit, then LoH back to the lab. Out of his normal 12 hour day, he would be spending around 8 hours in the lab - rather than the usual 10.

I am thinking of a few new non-standard lab routines to reflect this:-

These must be declared at the beginning of the season - once a season has been started, the routine cannot be changed

Brutus has a lab-total of 80

Social (modified from 'Overtime')
The magus frequently leaves the lab for short amounts of time each day. The magus averages around 8 hours of lab-work instead of the usual 10. The magus must put in the hours necessary, even if it means working late some evenings - or the day is counted as 'lost'. Due to the minimal nature of his lab work, a magus can only take 5 days off per season. If the magus constantly works late he must lose 1 long-term fatigue level for the season. This routine gives a penalty of -3 to the lab-total and is incompatible with any lab-routine which gives a bonus.
Brutus wanders out of his private 'workshop' and chats with his wife and the occasional guest. He puts in a some extra hours a few evenings a week. He successfully maintains his cover as a mundane craftsman, though he is down a fatigue level for the entire season. He has a lab-total of 77

Absent
The magus plans out the season and before starting and decides how many days from the lab he will have for the season in addition to the usual 10.
For each extra day, up to a limit of (2*Magic Theory), the magus may apply a penalty to their lab-total of (days * 3). The lab activity is then planned out and implimented.
Thus a magus may take an entire month away from the lab, if they wish a penalty of 60 to their lab-total.
Activities which do not require a lab-total cannot be carried out in this season.
Brutus knows that his wife is entertaining guests for 2 weeks and he has to be there to keep up appearances. He carefully plans his season, taking an extra 14 days (he has an MT of 10) out. He realises he will have a penalty to his lab-total of 42, so looks for a simple task he can accomplish over that season. he has a lab-total of 38

Partial
The magus may spend upto 20 days away from the lab and only works half of the day. He cannot take off more than 2 days in a row without an extra penalty. The overall lab-total is halved, if more than 2 days are taken off at once there is a penalty of -2 for each extra day.
Activities which do not require a lab-total cannot be carried out in this season.

Brutus' wife has given birth and he wants to spend time with his new child, he decides to take it easy for the season. He has an overall lab-total of 40

Obviously, there is nothing per RAW which would allow you to do that.
So it is house rules, which looks balanced to me.

My rule of thumb for this kind of House rules is "as long as it does not lead to abuse or broken things, let's try it".
I would forbid it if the magus was using the extra "social time" to do something else, like any activity which will earn XP (to him or a student of him - except basic exposure) or which would allow some additional magical craft (like using Rustic magic).

I just noticed the Errata for Covenants - there is already a routine which lets you work less hours than normal per day. For each hour less you lose 10% of your lab-total or study total.

I'm not sure how this works with seasonal activities like opening an item or fixing an Arcane Connection...