I try so hard to maintain a routine. To get things done. Not to waste time; not to waste a life. Central to this is my to-do list (on paper, not digital) and my exercise-and-diet spreadsheet - for healthy spirit in healthy mind in healthy body. Just enough stress to keep me driven and motivated - not so much as to cause issues.
My biggest personal enemy is procrastination, which attacks me from the moment I wake up. There's this voice, with a sensible tone, that offers me myriad rational excuses why not to start this particular day with a set of pull-ups before entering the kitchen from the bedroom, or not doing 50 squats as the kettle boils for my coffee.
That procrastination pushes my exercises and other duties further and further back in the day, until the moment I realise I cannot get it all done unless I stay up to midnight. And so, indeed, lights go out at 00:00. And being blessed with good sleep, I drop off immediately, waking at 8am, with a wee-break or two on the way (after which I also tend to drop off immediately). Eight hours of quality sleep.
So all good then?
Well, no - I'm wasting the dawn. We're approaching that time of year when the night shrinks down to eight hours, and the day extends to 16 hours. And I'm going to bed at midnight. That's literally the middle of the night. If sunrise is at 4am, sunset's at 8pm, the middle of the night is midnight.
Now, if I were to go to bed at 8pm and have eight hours of sleep - I could wake at 4am. Just think - five whole hours before the office Zoom call (instead of one). And still three hours of daylight after the end of the working day.
This is the post I was meant to have written two days ago - I didn't have time. Well, actually, I did have the time, but I wasted it. Mainly on doom-scrolling Twitter. Realising this, I have determined to dial back Twitter time and force myself to go to bed earlier - first 23:30, then 23:00, then 22:30, then 22:15 (it gets harder) - while each day performing all my tasks and doing all my exercises.
Now, it's the exercises that are the problem. Having 'gamified' my routine with my spreadsheet and my 'beat last year' slogan, I cannot go to sleep until the exercises are all done and I'm ahead of my scores for 2022. If I didn't procrastinate and waste time, I'd get them done during the day, and not allow all seven sets to pile up until well into the evening.
So - by blasting through my exercises earlier in the day, by not letting procrastination bedevil my activity, I shall be aiming to retire earlier, keeping bedtime no later than 10pm, with a 9pm goal - and the reward will be more daylight hours to spend communing with the midsummer Sun.
Go with the flow, relax and take it easy? I try to do that too!
Consciously striking the balance between getting on with it/getting stuff done on the one hand and taking it easy on the other is crucial to a happy life. Letting yourself go too often or pushing yourself to extremes should both be avoided.
By nature I'm an owl with a messy desk. That's something that needs to change. It's never too late to mend.
This time last year:
Hills... I gotta have hills
Flashback to a Dream - subconsciousness and memory
This time 12 years ago:
'Old school' = pre-war
This time 13 years ago:
Britain chooses a coalition government
This time 14 years ago:
Landing over Ursynów
This time 15 years ago:
On being assertive in Poland
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