First Published: 2024 December 10
I know that I literally made the goals less than a week ago, but I have already forgotten them. With that in mind, I think that it might be good to start going through the goals I’ve accomplished, and organizing the ones I have left so I have a reminder.
One offs:
Talk to boss about Ph.D. timeline
Pick a topic for a science communication article
Find an occasion I could write a song for
Make a list of the stretches I’ll do each day
Find a place to volunteer
Paper hit list
Read the comments on the serial
Compile a list of people I want to write letters to
Muse about macros and micros
Compile a list of 20 meals that I can make, with their ingredients (inc. shelf stable or lifetime), time, effort level, and nutrition info
Come up with an ordered list for what I’ll read
Figure out my motivation for each book and have it as the bookmark
List of things that need to be cleaned and the frequency
List of things in my life
Decide on what I want to draw right now
Make a list of musings to do
Block out time on Sundays for gospel reflection
Weekly:
Read a pop sci article a week, making notes about how they work
Spend 30 minutes 2x a week working on writing the song
On Sundays, write a hymn harmonization for one of the hymns we sang
Muse on Sundays about the Gospel
Read readings on Saturday
Ten minutes 4x a week on drawing
Daily:
Define how I’m feeling each day at start and end
Practice guitar daily (at least one scale and a chord progression)
Muse daily
Stretch Twice a day
Walk to the gym every day
Do daily affirmations
Having forgotten about most of these, stretching is really the only one I’ve been particularly good about doing. I did write a hymn harmonization on Sunday, though, which I suppose is a good thing! I think that now is a great time to begin putting explicit time markers on my life. I know that my schedule will change when I begin to teach again next semester, but the first of those is at 11 AM, so in theory I can schedule anything I like before then. It might be worth considering locales as well.
For those events which happen multiple times a week, that means setting aside multiple blocks of time. For writing the song, I think that one time on Sunday makes sense, since I’ll already be doing music, and the other maybe on Wednesday. Great, they’re in at 8AM those two days, and I’ll for now plan on doing them at home.
For pop science, I think that Friday mornings could be a good day, and it would be nice to do them in a coffee shop. That means I need to pick one out on Thursday and print it out, since I’d like to avoid having to use my computer.1 I’ve booked it an hour a week, starting at 8am this Friday.
When do I want to work on drawing? Realistically, whenever. I know that I want to do it at home, though, if only because it’s embarrassing to have others see my work. MTWR makes sense to me? I get a long weekend off of it, which would be cool. In at 7 50 am so that on Wednesdays it will not conflict with music time.
I have scheduled 3 to 5 pm on Sundays for reflecting on the Gospel and writing the hymn harmonization, and 4PM Saturday for prereading it.
That takes care of all the weekly events, so now it’s time to start scheduling the daily events! I recently got an app that asks me about my day at start and end, and I’m going to treat that as good enough for now. 715 to 725 will daily be guitar time. I haven’t quite figured out where musing is going to fit into my schedule, but I think that it might help to figure out what my days actually contain on a weekly basis first.
725 to 740 is booked each day for the first stretch, and the second will happen before bed. I don’t think that I want to do daily affirmations, and I’ll plan to walk to the pool daily at 1050 am, except for Wednesdays, when I’ll move it to 10 AM.2
Wow, it feels kind of nice to have the whole day scheduled out like that. I know that tomorrow we will not be able to follow the schedule exactly, because it takes me more than 20 minutes to get ready and to work, and I have to be at work at 850. Guess everything gets shifted back 15 minutes! I hope that I’ll find a way to make this routine both helpful to me and also maintainable.