As signaled by my recent resumption of posting activity, an era of stress and chaos is coming to an end. Even more dramatically put, Spontaneity has died and it is time once more for her brother to arise; Him Whom We Call Strict Schedules. He is an opinionated god, one who does not recline on fluffy cloud cushions but one who rules his disciples actively, guides them firmly but lovingly and schools them in the ancient art of time wizardry.
To herald the coming of our new overlord, my partner and I have gone on an artificer’s pilgrimage. Many a great distance we traveled to a company retreat, riding in the bellies of steel worms, letting ourselves be swallowed, digested, marinated in sweat and excreted and swallowed again. Yet long travels merely for their own purpose are not to the liking of our god, so we made sure not a minute was wasted. While in the bowels of these invertebrate beasts of burden, we descended into meditative states and, drawing from our shared piety, designed weekly schedules to henceforth command both our lives.
I will not share these these holy artifacts here for religious (and privacy protection) reasons, but I will try to reflect on and summarize how they differ from my previous attempts at schedumancy in ages long forgotten.
The main difference, of course, is that the olden days were times of solitude and seclusion. I did not have to sync my own schedule to a second, nor did I have to worry about social events as much, making them simpler times from a planning standpoint. Another detriment to both continuity and efficiency is the journey out to my family’s home that I undertake after every ten days in the city. For a short interval, my rhythm has to harmonize with that of the farm instead of my partner’s.
Still, another difference holds more potential of influence on the successful manifestation of His divine vision; the fact that I have a partner beside me who is also a believer. United in faith, we can remind each other of our vows and push for greater discipline, to make this era a long and prosperous one.
The plan is that we will both wake up at 6am, do a warm-up and go running, then stretch and take turns showering and eating breakfast. We’ll both start work at 7:30 and have lunch (and a short walk) together at 11:30 whenever we can. The rest of the day is not so easy to keep in sync, but we tried to align our dinners and some of our slots for common chores and free time. Fortunately, we also share some of our more time-consuming hobbies. Lastly, we will both try to go to bed at 10pm on a regular day.
Since we like to stay active and e.g. go on day-long hiking trips on the weekend, it is already clear that some days will more often than not deviate from their regular structure. We did not, as I thought we might in the beginning, assign to all slots a value of how important it is that they be filled with the intended activity but we did discuss which days will have to be the most flexible.
We also both managed to keep a few hours of the week entirely free from tasks. I’m not sure if that will suffice, but it makes both our schedules look at least a little more achievable. And, as I already mentioned in my last post on this topic, the goal is not to always get every slot right and never skip a task. The goal is to keep up a basic, mostly healthy – nay, more healthy (an imperfect schedule is better than no schedule at all) – routine to increase energy, motivation, satisfaction and general quality of life. Beyond that, the goal is to realize our dreams, which in my case means getting some writing done (and the right kind of writing, too).
In other words, Our Lord Of Strict Schedules does not seek to enslave us, but lead us into freedom.
Be gone now, child.