Wrenches
Do you ever have wrenches in your days? To define, it's one thing that is planned or unplanned in the middle of your day that throws a wrench in your plans. It's hard to focus or remain completeley calm when you have a wrench like this in your day. What is the best way to deal with these wrenches?
As an example for a wrench, let's say you have a dentists appointment at 12 pm today. That doesn't leave much room in the morning for you. Depending on what time you wake up in the morning, depends on how much time you'll have to yourself, etc. I prefer to wake up early. Lately, I've been getting up @ 6am. I'd like to get up even earlier—say 4am. This way I have ample time to myself to do things that are important to me. Not to mention, it also sets the tone for the day. The early birt definitely gets the wormie.
What do you choose to do in the morning that is important to you? I would say the #1 is exercise. Being an anxious person, getting some exercise in first thing really does wonders. The body wants to move. The mind will thank you for it. It's a bit of a head game getting out the door sometimes, but once you are it's pretty much gravy at that point. Another good trick is to put your shoes by the door. Setting a bit of a disciplined routine can help as well, so you know when you are running (or whatever other exericise), and don't have to think about it more.
Another good practice in the morning would be meditation. This is something I'd like to get back into. I would say to do it after you run so that your mind is functioning at a higher level than before. There is so much mental junk up there that needs to be sorted out. I would recommend using a guided meditation, especially if you're new. Just having someone in your ear teaching you and reassuring you that you are doing it correctly can do wonders.
But back to the purpose of this article. When you have a wrench in your day it sort of throws things off. Stuff you'd like to get done in that time slot gets derailed. You may start your project up again later on in the day, but the momentum you had before is somewhat lost. You could have kept going, but couldn't because of your stupid dentist appointment. How can we fix this? How can we stop having wrenches in our days? At least, let's work on the planned wrenches for now.
I would say an easy fix would be to schedule stuff later in the day. This way you pretty much have the entire day to yourself to focus on what is important to you. You have the control that you need and you can work on your projects that are meaningful. The only problem I see with this is that when you have something planned your mind still feels is nagging at you. It is like a notification in your mind that just won't shut up until you are done with the appointment or whatever was on your plate that day. I know for me, tha when I have something planned that day, such as appointment, it annoys me. I feel like I can't fully concentrate or focus on my work because I know it's coming. At least having it scheduled towards the end of the day frees the time up though.
Another solution would be to have it scheduled in the very beginning of the day so that you can get it over with. The two bookends of the day are the most important to me as far as structure, that is why I don't know if I favor scheduling stuff in the morning. I don't know though, I don't need to be so rigid with it necessarily. I do really enjoy delving into writing pretty much first thing usually so that I can feel like I put a full day's work in.
And yet another option would be to have a day either filled with appointments pretty much back to back so that you can get em done in a day. As long as the appointments are spaced out you should be okay time wise.