Some very kind friends recently gave me a gift subscription to a meditation app — the kind that gives you access to a library of guided meditations, calming videos, sleep stories, mindfulness aids and more through your smartphone. I’ve always been interested in trying meditation, and with all the craziness of the past two years, the app seemed just the thing to bolster my sanity and help sharpen my focus for the future.
“Just remember: You really need to commit to it to see the benefits,” one of the friends said. “So set aside some time on your calendar for it, and don’t let anything interfere with that appointment.”
“No problem,” I said. Like everyone else these days, I know how important it is to use your schedule to reinforce your goals, so when I got up today, I immediately set about carving out some time for using the meditation app. Since it seemed like it would be nice to go into the day with a clear head, I thought that I’d try to do it first thing in the morning, but I’d already blocked off that spot on my calendar for a brisk walk — regular cardio is pretty important after all, and it’s too easy to skip it if it isn’t on the calendar.
I tried to block off a little time immediately after that, but much of the rest of the morning was reserved for one-on-ones with staff — with so many people working remotely, you have to set aside time to really connect and check in with them, or they’ll quickly come to feel disengaged.
Lunchtime is strictly committed to important business reading — individual industries and the overall economy are changing so quickly that you can’t afford to fall behind, and that means dedicating some time to keeping up. Immediately after that, of course, is the 20 minutes that’s blocked off for long-term thinking; it’s too easy to get so caught up in what’s going on today that you fail to plan for the future. I was going to try to meditate immediately after that, but that’s the quarter of an hour where I go outside to look at the tree across the street from my office, because it’s important to reconnect with nature on a regular basis.
I hoped to get a chance to try the app after my tree time, but my afternoon was blocked off into a series of short windows for setting my quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals; exploring developing technologies; researching new markets; walking once around the block; developing after-action reports; reviewing previous after-action reports; testing our data backup procedures; decluttering my desk; walking once around the block again but in the opposite direction, to gain a new perspective; and finally assessing my progress against my quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals.
By then, work was over and it was dinner time, but dinner is out, since that’s devoted to quality time with the family, and phones are strictly forbidden at the table.
Most of the evening, obviously, is dedicated to catching up on all the work I didn’t have a chance to get to during the day, and that left just half an hour before bedtime — you have to be very strict about bedtime, or you won’t get the seven-and-three-quarters hours rest that every adult needs — but I’ve set that 30 minutes aside as a “no screentime” block, since the blue light messes with my melatonin levels and throws off my Circadian rhythms.
Maybe tomorrow.
