Who is this for? Anyone who cannot bear to verge from their set schedule.

How is this useful to them? Become open to the possibility that you can get things done outside of that one routine.

Why is this worth my time? To realise that I must act violently on any available time when the window opens.

Part I:

Changing my mind about changing my mind.

Maybe it’s getting older, or having a kid but I can now admit I have (and will be) wrong about many things. I was incredibly militant about music as teenager. I would only listen to metal, specifically non-mainstream death metal. Then it broadened to included intense high tempo electronic music that incorporated metal and eventually music that used the guitar as a prominent instrument but NEVER pop. The more I focused on these niches the less I was able to appreciate the interesting textures and ideas present in any other form of music. Radiohead for example, interesting, clever, melancholic, dark. It ticks all the boxes of what I found interesting in extreme metal yet I wouldn’t have even entertained the idea of experimenting. I do currently still believe that having narrow focus is the best way to create interesting art otherwise you are always chasing too many rabbits but is it the best way to get the most out of life? Maybe not.

Part II:

Making the most of the time I have

Now that I’m a parent, I’ve changed my mind about doing things on schedule. It’s great to have the discipline to do certain things at a certain time. It was the only way I got anything done for a long time. It saved me from my default state of laziness.  Going to the gym at midday on a Tuesday to do the 2nd workout of a 12 week cycle was absolute perfection. Especially after a great nights sleep and good planned good meals. Now? My girlfriend will ask me do I want to go to the gym in 5 minutes when the baby is down? The easiest answer is no, no I do not. I need time to plan, mentally. But actually now I go. I figure out a plan on the walk and execute with whatever intensity I have available to me at the time. Shit sleep? No food to speak of? Dehydrated? Whatever. If that is important to me (which I claim it is) then I make it happen. Is it ‘optimal’? Of course not but it’s the only way I can get the things done that I claim to value. It’s also a fools errand for me to assume that I am operating at the level where optimal is making the difference. Stepping over dollars to pick up cents.

Part III:

The truth about how I use time

I am now blatantly aware at how bad I am at getting things done. Did you ever finish a Uni assignment by doing an all nighter the night before? Or fill out a travel Visa at the airport because you didn’t know it needed to be done before hand? Some things can get done but you can’t live your life that way. I often choose whether to live in the moment or plan for the future depending on what work i’m avoiding at the time.

I will have a block of 30 minutes with the intention of filling out my daily journal which should only take 10 minutes and fluff half of the time choosing music and flicking between 10 tabs I opened from YouTube the night before.

But here we are, my 10 minute timer is now up and Isla is awake. Done is better than perfect!