Blogging: 1 Unit

Lately it has been feast or famine for me in terms of discipline. I've been self-employed for over 4 years now, which requires the ability to self-discipline in terms of time management. But lately I'm either incredibly focused and productive, or completely, utterly consumed by inertia. I have no middle ground. I know lots of good time management techniques, but they have all been failing me.

So, I've decided to treat this as you would any bad habit, and assume that if I can replace my undesirable behavior patterns with desirable ones for at least 30 days, the new behaviors will become the new habits. And for this, I turn to the movies for inspiration.

I remember virtually nothing from the movie About a Boy, EXCEPT that Hugh Grant, who for some reason is not obliged to work for a living, has a system for organizing his days which prevents him from slipping into a state of drooling sloth. He divides his days in to 30-minute "units" and allocates those units: Personal grooming, one unit. Exercise, two units. Dinner, two units. Etc.

So I decided to try the Unit-allocation approach to changing my behavior. I started today. First up, one Unit of planning, over breakfast, to allocate the rest of the Units. Exercise, two Units. Work for Client X, 6 Units. Work for Client Y, 3 Units. Meditation, 1 Unit (strategically scheduled before the phone call with the ever-maddening Client X). Housecleaning Task Of Choice, 2 Units.

I did ok, for a first try. When I realized I couldn't actually do 6 Units of work for Client X today - the ball is in somebody else's court - I replaced them with 2 Units of napping, and 2 Units of...leakage. I leaked 2 units. I have no idea how they were spent. I cannot account for them.

But I'm going to take the Buddhist approach here and simply observe this fact with non-judging loving-kindness towards myself, and curiosity. The good news is, I did in fact accomplish the 2 units of exercise, 1 unit of meditation, 2 units of housecleaning, and 3 units of work for Client Y. And in the midst of all that, I leaked 2 units. How interesting. Now I am like an auditor, searching for the missing Units on the great check register of my life, so I can fix the problem and balance the books!