yesterday (now two days given this publish date) swanberry and i sat down & designed new daily(s). i explained that the core agenda going forward would be (1) building towards a freelance career and (2) strengthening my planning/organizational skills. this meant two things– time management-wise, this week’s schedule/daily(s)/weekly goals needed to be realistic and achievable. second, the lion’s share of this week’s effort needed to result in a big step toward freelance.
so off we go. well…. before our meeting came a quick search on “planning” via the youtubes. oddly enough this resulted in a super helpful video/article combo, from the eerily red pill-like named website, “the art of manliness”… it was pretty fire in terms of helping me THINK about weekly goals.
i got (or was reminded of) a few important concepts from the art of manliness piece:
- review each day AND plan for the next day, every day, in addition to planning my week.
- there are different types of daily goals. ROCK goals (major achievement for the day around which the day is planned); SHARPENING THE SAW goals (tasks meant to keep one in prime form: working out, reading, meditation, etc); GRAVEL (smaller tasks like cooking, laundry, etc. these “fill out” the rest of your day, they are placed around rock goals.
- aim to keep sharpening the saw goals at the same time each day
- prioritize my goals so i’ll be able to decide in the moment, zero deliberation
another concept swan brought to my attention was that my ideal day would look different day-to-day. this sucked to hear but made so many of last week’s failings obvious. like goggins or many of the discipline experts i know, the body and mind do best in rhythm, a pattern. wake up at this time, eat at x, work during y, begin power-down blah blah blah. however, swan helped me realize that my desire for simplicity blinded me from the fact that there’s a fair amount of variance in my evenings so instead of thinking about repeating the same day, every day, think about my week.
i needed to identify my major goals were for the week (insert another swan insight) THEN check my calendar to see how much of the week was really mine AFTER factoring all prior obligations (late work nights, dates, family, etc) this was fucking mind-blowing for me. what i hadn’t intuited, and another reason why i always failed at planning so miserably–i didn’t get this basic fact that: i DON’T HAVE THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME WEEK TO WEEK. this week, for example, i have 1 date night, 1 late work night, and 1 day where i’m shooting on swan’s project. that’s THREE nights this week that ARE NOT mine to spend. this means i can’t have a weekly goal list that requires SEVEN FREE NIGHTS because i only have FOUR FREE nights. this is another reason why daily(s) ended up crushing me out last week. i’d take on the same load regardless of available time because i didn’t know how to scan for and identify time that wasn’t mine.
this ALSO means that there will ALWAYS be more things i WANT to do in a week than i CAN do in a week. there are TWO levers i can move to increase output:
- INCREASE “me” days – say no to more things and have more days available per week. this allows for more weekly tasks to get done. at the moment my default allows for two socials days (often 2 date nights or 1 fam and 1 date night) and one late-work night.
- GET BETTER performance-wise. as the weeks go by i will be able to accomplish more in the same hour than i did the previous week. keep stretching (slowly) while staying consistent and this phenomenon will occur all on its own.
there another thing i must keep an eye on: the priority list of my weekly desires. in order to have this i must first identify my main goals. for that i have S.T.A.M.P.E. [see this post if you’re confuzzled]
Sanctums – family, best friends, and main support circles
Temple – my body/health
Art – art
Money – financial awareness, business, etc
People – secondary support circles and humanity as a whole
Everything else – everything else
Sanctums – keep “2 days” for loved ones.
Temple – 90 mins of physicals are good, stop here. program this at the beginning of the day as sharpening the saw goals
Art – focus on diversity of experience. try a bunch of different things and see what’s fulfilling. program art as a rock goal synonymous with freelance.
Money – FREELANCE. first, build a reel from what i have. every day try and secure a paid gig. program money as a rock goal synonymous with art.
People – work with artists you care about and wish to see flourish; do work affiliated with causes that matter
Everything Else – 🤷🏾♂️
and now, after a third sift through of those thoughts, i’m left with my priority list for weekly goals:
- the conversation series – it’s something i’m making every week. it generates value for my brand. it’s a thing i can constantly build and enjoy. it showcases my skill and range. it’s work i think should be in the world.
- ‘freelance’ – at this stage this means attempting to secure a gig every day; once a gig comes along, executing on it. as this increases in frequency, freelance will bypass the conversation series in value. until then, given my inconsistent, or non-existent, paid client base, the convo series generates more daily value.
- helping people – this means working other artists. donating my time. supporting friends.
- marketing – this includes all efforts at marketing the conversation series, the vlog, my personal brand, and the emerging freelance business.
- the vlog – i’d like to ship the vlog weekly but this comes AFTER everything else meaning if i have 6 full nigel days, there may be time for the vlog, if i only have 4, probably not….
whew! i’m still not done. i need to know what my DEFAULT block of time looked like. an “average” day. and even now i keep reminding myself a schedule is a PLAN, a guideline, not a test. and certainly never a reason to quit in the event i’m “off schedule” for some reason.
0500 – 0600 wake, then mental goals (meditation, journal, etc)
0600 – 0730 physical goals (any combination of running or calisthenics: push-ups, abs, pull-ups, and/or dips)
0730- 0830 weekly film goals (choose one skill/tutorial and practice it every day for an hour. another major insight from swan. the week prior i did 7 different tutorials and confessed while familiar with more techniques i retained none of the knowledge and would need to use a reference video in the future if i were to create any of the effects i leared again. with this structure on days 1-4 i’d most likely refer to the tutorial, on days 5-6 slowly on my own, and on the 7th day i should be moving at a moderate speed completely independent. skill acquired. 💪🏾)
0830-1900 work, including travel
1900 – 1945 cooking and shopping (here i plan to take a page out of zoo and chase/nima’s book and cook for the ENTIRE WEEK on sunday. this would give me 45 extra mins over the remaining 6 days)
1945 – 2145 MY REAL TIME. for film. editing. marketing. all of it.
2145 – 2200 plan tomorrow!
2200 – 2230 blog + any remaining mental goals (evening meditation)
2230 – 2245 shower and power down
2245 – 2300 yoga PM
2300 sleep
i gotta admit last night it was hard to obey this but i know why now. last week i suffered tons of losses. i’ve become accustomed to less than 100% weeks again and began settlings now i remember my why… SELF-DISCIPLINE IS SELF MASTERY. SELF MASTERY IS SELF LOVE. there are no circumstances where not holding self mastery as a priority is a thing… with self love i give way more, i enjoy way more, and i’m SO much more fulfilled.
This week with only four nigel days in my possession i only have time for:
– building a reel (approx 2 nigel days)
– filming new conversation series and editing last week’s (approx 2 nigel days)
whew. i’ve learned so much. i’m incredibly thankful to all the parties involved in helping me assemble this run (chase, zoo, and swan). can’t wait to deliver on monday.
love you universe
~nai
[late for 2/4/19, published 2/5/19 1312]