Discussion Forum > Routines, Rhythms and Depth of Meaning
I don't have much to add to this, but I certainly enjoyed the read! Thanks for sharing.
February 15, 2025 at 6:57 |
Aaron Hsu
Aaron Hsu
Thanks for the post.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to implement the idea here of having weekly or monthly themes?
I have created a notebook of items categorized by life areas, what David Allen would call "areas of focus" or "areas of responsibility", and am wondering how to use these. I have about 50 pages.
I have thought that I could read one a day, or devote one week to each one. However, I have not always been successful in such kind of planning.
There are rhythms of life that are built into nature, daily and seasonally, and the body has its biorhythms. There are weekly rhythms such as workdays and non-work days, weekly meetings. Then there are rhythms that come to us from society, such as tax season, holidays.
But the weekly and monthly themes that are suggested here come from the person and are planned in advance.
I think I would have some success if I planned for a 3 - hour time block, maybe once a week, and I could take each one, and review the page, and do what I can in that time block. I already do this, for example, go on a walk in the park, or go to a study room in the library.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to implement the idea here of having weekly or monthly themes?
I have created a notebook of items categorized by life areas, what David Allen would call "areas of focus" or "areas of responsibility", and am wondering how to use these. I have about 50 pages.
I have thought that I could read one a day, or devote one week to each one. However, I have not always been successful in such kind of planning.
There are rhythms of life that are built into nature, daily and seasonally, and the body has its biorhythms. There are weekly rhythms such as workdays and non-work days, weekly meetings. Then there are rhythms that come to us from society, such as tax season, holidays.
But the weekly and monthly themes that are suggested here come from the person and are planned in advance.
I think I would have some success if I planned for a 3 - hour time block, maybe once a week, and I could take each one, and review the page, and do what I can in that time block. I already do this, for example, go on a walk in the park, or go to a study room in the library.
February 19, 2025 at 20:17 |
Mark H.
Mark H.
In my experience, I find the most successful I am is by thinking ahead of time the night before or the morning of a given day about what my wish list for the next day is, and I often home in on a single "priority" or focus for the day that I can use to drive that day. This is flexible and dynamic enough for me to not be rigidly stuck in something that doesn't turn out to fit, but it also helps drive some focus in the day and tends to create plenty of rhythms.
Since I tend to work a single project at a time, I naturally fall into monthly rhythms where a single project is often a few weeks of work.
My personal approach these days is one of allowing for what I think of as an organic responsiveness to rhythms that emerge by honing my focus and attention, rather than "pre-planning" a specific goal that I'd like to achieve. Sometimes, that means I need to work through resistance that emerges, but a lot of rhythmic planning is, I think, tied towards recognizing the rhythms that exist outside of our own desires as much as the desires and goals we may have internally for ourselves. By combining that, I find it easier to work with.
I don't know that this is more fundamentally effective at shaping our world to our aims, but I find that if I push too hard into the planning direction, I just get burned out because of how much intensity is required for how long to make my goals happen. I find it better to have a more relaxed and less "pushy" approach at this point, even if I could be giving up some theoretical output. I'm banking on this being better and more sustainable for the long term.
Since I tend to work a single project at a time, I naturally fall into monthly rhythms where a single project is often a few weeks of work.
My personal approach these days is one of allowing for what I think of as an organic responsiveness to rhythms that emerge by honing my focus and attention, rather than "pre-planning" a specific goal that I'd like to achieve. Sometimes, that means I need to work through resistance that emerges, but a lot of rhythmic planning is, I think, tied towards recognizing the rhythms that exist outside of our own desires as much as the desires and goals we may have internally for ourselves. By combining that, I find it easier to work with.
I don't know that this is more fundamentally effective at shaping our world to our aims, but I find that if I push too hard into the planning direction, I just get burned out because of how much intensity is required for how long to make my goals happen. I find it better to have a more relaxed and less "pushy" approach at this point, even if I could be giving up some theoretical output. I'm banking on this being better and more sustainable for the long term.
February 20, 2025 at 15:43 |
Aaron Hsu
Aaron Hsu
I love all this, but it will take me a long time to process and think through, but I had never thought about this before. Remind me to come back to your post and give it some brain power ! There is definitely something workable there, tailored to the individual !!!
best wishes, Samantha
best wishes, Samantha
April 4, 2025 at 10:05 |
Samantha
Samantha
My new favorite resource for navigating different types of work is "Mind Management, not Time Management" by David Kadavy.
He identifies seven different types of creative work. The exact types and number aren't critical. The key insight for me was how he aligned mood with type of work. It was four questions:
1) What do I need to do?
2) What mood would be best for doing it?
3) What was happening the last time I felt that way?
4) Can I recreate what was happening to recreate that mood?
I had never seen this approach before. Decide what you need to do next (typically something larger or batched similar things). Then you try to recreate your personal best mood for doing that. Maybe that means changing where you are sitting, or what you are listening to or not, or with people or not. His example was doing strategic planning in a high rise building. He felt more expansive and strategic, so that's where he did it. It put him in the right mood to think that way.
Here's his seven types of creative work, and my quick summary:
1) prioritize/plan - look at the landscape, pick your path
2) explore - don't know what I want to find
3) research - know what I want to find
4) generate - make something that could be used
5) polish - make something ready to deliver
6) administrate - support what makes the rest possible
7) recharge - restore your energy
He identifies seven different types of creative work. The exact types and number aren't critical. The key insight for me was how he aligned mood with type of work. It was four questions:
1) What do I need to do?
2) What mood would be best for doing it?
3) What was happening the last time I felt that way?
4) Can I recreate what was happening to recreate that mood?
I had never seen this approach before. Decide what you need to do next (typically something larger or batched similar things). Then you try to recreate your personal best mood for doing that. Maybe that means changing where you are sitting, or what you are listening to or not, or with people or not. His example was doing strategic planning in a high rise building. He felt more expansive and strategic, so that's where he did it. It put him in the right mood to think that way.
Here's his seven types of creative work, and my quick summary:
1) prioritize/plan - look at the landscape, pick your path
2) explore - don't know what I want to find
3) research - know what I want to find
4) generate - make something that could be used
5) polish - make something ready to deliver
6) administrate - support what makes the rest possible
7) recharge - restore your energy
April 7, 2025 at 20:37 |
Scott Moehring
Scott Moehring
> Does anyone have any suggestions on how to implement the idea here of having weekly or monthly themes?
Obviously with DIT using the Current Initiative. Have on CI per week (I think Mark said this somewhere, that this is how he had the CI originally intended.) and pre-plan the CIs for a month so, that a common theme emerges.
An example (out of my head, not experienced by myself) could be, you have the month of May upcoming, so let's see, what would be a springy theme? Getting in shape of course and seeing other people outside.
So for the four weeks of May, we could have the following CIs for each week respectively:
1. Every morning I start the day with physical exercises.
2. Every morning I start work by sitting in a coffee shop with my laptop and "accidentally" chat up other patrons in between.
3. Every day I meet with one of my friends in the park, hanging, catching up.
4. Every morning I research some new exercise to add (or improve) my physical workout routine.
This could be a nice start into spring that initiates a lot of rad rumble for this year :-)
Obviously with DIT using the Current Initiative. Have on CI per week (I think Mark said this somewhere, that this is how he had the CI originally intended.) and pre-plan the CIs for a month so, that a common theme emerges.
An example (out of my head, not experienced by myself) could be, you have the month of May upcoming, so let's see, what would be a springy theme? Getting in shape of course and seeing other people outside.
So for the four weeks of May, we could have the following CIs for each week respectively:
1. Every morning I start the day with physical exercises.
2. Every morning I start work by sitting in a coffee shop with my laptop and "accidentally" chat up other patrons in between.
3. Every day I meet with one of my friends in the park, hanging, catching up.
4. Every morning I research some new exercise to add (or improve) my physical workout routine.
This could be a nice start into spring that initiates a lot of rad rumble for this year :-)
April 8, 2025 at 16:11 |
Christopher
Christopher
The 4 questions kind of remind me of the coaching dialogs in "How to make your dreams come true." The future self 'knows' what works and helps current self 'discover' those methods/mindsets in the moment.
April 8, 2025 at 16:40 |
Mike Brown
Mike Brown
That's a useful experiment. One week won't be enough to see if it's worth making it a habit, or even if it would get easier with more practice, and you might need to qualify some results (eg going to the park every morning doesn't work when it rains), but it is enough to see if the coffee shop has interesting patrons.
FlyLady had weekly zones, during which you do things you don't do weekly or daily, minimum 15 minutes/day in the week's zone. Start with decluttering, then light cleaning, then deep cleaning -- but only 15 minutes.
1, partial week, entrance, front porch, dining room
2, kitchen
3, main bathroom and one other room
4, main bedroom, including attached bathrooms and closets
5, partial week, living room
I don't remember how it handles months that don't start or end with a partial week. We're encouraged to adjust for our home, but first focus on these rooms.
FlyLady had weekly zones, during which you do things you don't do weekly or daily, minimum 15 minutes/day in the week's zone. Start with decluttering, then light cleaning, then deep cleaning -- but only 15 minutes.
1, partial week, entrance, front porch, dining room
2, kitchen
3, main bathroom and one other room
4, main bedroom, including attached bathrooms and closets
5, partial week, living room
I don't remember how it handles months that don't start or end with a partial week. We're encouraged to adjust for our home, but first focus on these rooms.
April 11, 2025 at 15:11 |
Cricket
Cricket
Can’t let the spambots. win! But actually this experiment of Christopher’s I think I could actually do precisely:
An example (out of my head, not experienced by myself) could be, you have the month of May upcoming, so let's see, what would be a springy theme? Getting in shape of course and seeing other people outside.
So for the four weeks of May, we could have the following CIs for each week respectively:
> 1. Every morning I start the day with physical exercises
I would walk to the local park every morning.
> 2. Every morning I start work by sitting in a coffee shop with my laptop and "accidentally" chat up other patrons in between.
How does one accidentally chat up someone? How does one deliberately? Serious question, as I am in coffee shops often, and never, almost, talk to people.
>3.. See friends every day in a park and catch up.
This seems weird to me. My friends aren’t in the park. I don’t catch up with people daily. Do you invite. people for a specific date and time to have a chat? Or was this all hypothetical.
I’m. not sure a month long routine trial is the format for me. It’s interesting though.
An example (out of my head, not experienced by myself) could be, you have the month of May upcoming, so let's see, what would be a springy theme? Getting in shape of course and seeing other people outside.
So for the four weeks of May, we could have the following CIs for each week respectively:
> 1. Every morning I start the day with physical exercises
I would walk to the local park every morning.
> 2. Every morning I start work by sitting in a coffee shop with my laptop and "accidentally" chat up other patrons in between.
How does one accidentally chat up someone? How does one deliberately? Serious question, as I am in coffee shops often, and never, almost, talk to people.
>3.. See friends every day in a park and catch up.
This seems weird to me. My friends aren’t in the park. I don’t catch up with people daily. Do you invite. people for a specific date and time to have a chat? Or was this all hypothetical.
I’m. not sure a month long routine trial is the format for me. It’s interesting though.
April 30, 2025 at 12:42 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
Linear-time can ignore how your body shapes your thought processes, emotional experiences and meaning of experience. By regarding time as fluid and moving away from the linear way of experiencing time opens up a perception of time as cyclical and rhythmic, aligning with natural, biological, and emotional cycles.
This approach can provide a deeper sense of connection to your body, emotions, the natural world, and even your spiritual life, helping you to feel more in tune with the rhythms of existence. This approach sees time as fluid, with ebb and flow - the emphasis moves to routines more than clocks. For example, you might start each day with a morning ritual (e.g., light stretching, tea, journaling), followed by a creative or work-focused period, and then have a midday break (such as a walk or mindful eating). Your day can end with a winding-down process, incorporating evening rituals that signal the body to relax (e.g., reading, meditation).
Weekly patterns would tie specific activities to certain days. For instance, Mondays for reflection, Tuesdays for creativity (painting, writing), Wednesdays for socializing, Thursdays for outdoor activities, and so on. These rhythms reduce rigid, task-driven expectations.
Noticing how your mood fluctuates throughout the day or week allows those rhythms to guide the kind of activities you engage in rather than the calendar or the clock - unstructured time where you can experience time’s passage naturally, observing how it feels as hours without the usual time pressures.
By embracing routines and rhythms, emotional awareness, and energy changes, you can create more meaning, presence, and depth.
To implement it create "windows of time" for different types of activities (e.g., creative work, relaxation, nature time) but leave room for fluidity and change based on your internal rhythms and external conditions. Use time-blocks to accommodate different phases of the day, like creative bursts, rest periods, or social engagement. Organize the calendar around weekly or monthly themes instead of a detailed schedule. For example, “Creativity Week”, “Nature Week”, or “Restorative Month”. In this way, your calendar would track not only chronological time but also the more organic rhythms of your life.