On The Annual Revising Of The Schedule

 Inevitably one of the things I tool with at the beginning of each year is my daily and weekly schedule.

The reality - played out for me over years and years of experience, mostly bad - is that I do best with a schedule.  If I have set things scheduled at set times, I am more likely to do them.  If I do not, even the best intentions will not get me to address them.

A simple one is the weight training.  I do best when I have three times - ideally the same time - scheduled for my weight training.  Once upon a time is was Monday/Wednesday/Friday evenings until Iaijutsu class was moved.  My choices remained going at lunch - which on the whole is more ideal although I need to get over the guilt of being away from my computer for an hour - or going Tuesday/Thursday and Friday/Saturday evenings.  Perhaps not surprisingly, if I go Tuesday and Thursdays, often as not Friday becomes Saturday or even Sunday (and that work out is Deadlift Day, which I actually like).  I am back to trying lunches again - but lunch every day of the week (it is a 5-10 minute drive each way to the gym, so I easily have 40 minutes to work out, which should be more than enough time).  

Or writing.  I write best, it seems, when I write in the mornings post my early morning routine of Bible reading, prayer, journaling, calisthenics, short crossword of the day, Old English, and walking Poppy. If I try to do it in the evenings, it is a hit and miss not only of terms of if I do it, but in terms of the quality of the work (also, it gives me the bulk of the day to come back and edit, something which I struggle with).  The ideas may come earlier during the day - I spend a great deal of my time walking Poppy muttering to myself - but I just wwrite better in the morning.

And so on.  Iaijustsu class happens two nights and one morning a week, the rabbits need my help every Sunday after church and cleaning up after my own mob.  Everything can have its place and still leave time in the week for blocks of free time on most days.

The biggest challenge is the other daily items I need to do to get better - Japanese and Harp, gardening.  I still struggle to find a regular time that works; after work (but prior to dinner) is the regular time that I have for this activity.  It is not ideal, mostly because coming off of work I would like some time to decompress - I am working on finding a solution.

The other big challenge that I face this year is making time to practice writing more (it is on the list).  The recommendation from Alan Watt of The 90 Day Novel is two hours a day.  Where that time is coming from at the moment, I have no clue.  It is okay though - it is still early in the year.

The thing that all of this necessitates is a pretty firm schedule with specific times for rising, going to bed, working, and the allocation of the regular times.  This is always my challenge (as it has been this year as well).  Every year I seem to get about 1% better at it.

Barring something significant like death or retirement, I grasp that this is ultimately a short term arrangement.  But if I am honest, it somewhat embitters me that so much of my productive time is actually invested in work, something I never quite feel all that productive in.

Ah well.  Until then, I have plenty to keep me busy - and plenty of schedule to continue to tweak.