[Tracking Every Minute]-Day 12 – Tired Thursday
This post is the twelfth in the #trackingeveryminute challenge. You can follow along here.
Not sure if it’s the holiday season or a cold, but I am feeling exhausted. End of the year malaise? The good news is that I planned my day the night before. It is a huge mental hack.
Instead of waking up and wondering what I am going to do, I wake up and look at my calendar and know what I have to do. It’s really silly, I get it. But past me seems to have a better grasp on what I need to do then current me.
I adhere to the schedule set by my past self better than I set a schedule in real time. Weird right? It’s not perfect, as we’ll see, but it is definitely better.
6:00 – 6:30. If you read the intro you might have guessed that I didn’t start the day off strong. I had planned to read for this half hour, but I loafed around on my phone instead. If I go half full, I can celebrate the fact that I still got out of bed.
6:30 – 8:30. Kids drop off and back to the house.
8:30 – 9:00. First communication block of the day. Try to batch as many communications tasks into this window as possible. I try to avoid checking email, going on social media, texting outside of this window. Am I perfect? Of course not. But just closing my email at the end of this time is a huge win.
9:00 – 11:00. First deep work block of the day.
11:00 – 12:00. I had a workout planned for this block, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I walked with my dogs instead.
12:00 – 1:00. Lunch. I ordered in via uber eats. Full disclosure, I checked my email during this time period. I’m not perfect.
1:00 – 2:30. Second deep work block of the day.
2:30 – 3:30. Pick up one kid and drop off at home.
3:30 – 7:00. Pick up another kid and take them to soccer practice.
7:00 – 8:00. Family reunited and dinner.
8:00 – 9:30. Back to the lab! My lab might be a really boring computer setup, but I always wanted to say that. Finished the night off finishing up some of the work I started during the day.
Be Less Bad
Following up on the theme from yesterday, which was not making the second mistake. In trying to build a habit, you will make mistakes, you should plan on them. However, what you don’t want to do is start a habit in the opposite direction. Therefore, you commit to never skipping or messing up twice in a row.
Today I feel I was less bad than I usually would have been. I woke up at 6:00, which is good, but I didn’t “read,” which was bad. This outcome was still better than not getting out of bed.
I was planning on working out at 11, I didn’t, but I did go for a long walk. Again, I did not do what I planned on doing, but I didn’t make the absolute worse of it. I could have done nothing. I was less bad.
Main Takeaways
- Be less bad… I think this is a direct outcome of this challenge. This day had the potential to be a bad one.
- My past self can lead my current self in the right direction. I was not planning on waking up and feeling tired, etc. Thankfully, I followed the plan my past self set for me. Silly? For sure. But it worked for me. Try it.
If you enjoying me trying to argue how my past self is a better judge of how I use my time than my current self, you should sign up for the newsletter below.