Daily Routines of Interesting People

I got inspired to take a look at how people spend their day by a blogger at Daily Routines where there are really interesting posts about how famous people organize their day: http://dailyroutines.typepad.com

It’s broken down into categories of people – architects, artists, filmmakers, musicians, philosophers, writers, and so forth. It also has categories for habit types of people, like nap takers, night owls, procrastinators, etc.

After reading about how Winston Churchill organized his day, I realized how so many professional people follow an agenda that’s built into their daily life that becomes routine.

For Churchill, he started off with the bath then headed out for a stroll around his garden and then took a whisky and soda to his study. By late afternoon he took a siesta which allowed him to work 1-1/2 days in every 24 hours.

The routine of how people start their day, how they progress throughout the afternoon hours, what their focal point of the day is, and how they wind down the day is quite interesting. I’d love to do a study on that, but another time.

Wouldn’t it be interesting for us to write down what we do each day from the time we wake up to the time we retire for the day? Maybe we can see where our time gets wasted too and attempt to adjust how we spend our time.

Challenging Time

Waiting Until the Last Minute
Can Be Challenging

Sometimes, we want to create challenges for ourselves. I guess it’s part of our nature. Even I, as organized as I am and try to remain being, still have to challenge myself with time.

For instance, today I knew I had an appointment to get to at a certain time. I looked at the clock several times throughout the day and knew I could do something else before I needed to get ready for the appointment. In the last half-hour before I had to depart, I found myself scrambling to make myself decent. Not fun.

It’s interesting, if we know we have to do something or be somewhere by a certain time, why do we CHOOSE to delay, delay, delay? I can only assume we like the game of challenging time. I’ve tried to slow or stop the clock, and have even successfully arrived at a destination on time when I’ve left late. There was satisfaction in that — but the agony of getting there on time was not so satisfying.

I guess life is a game and we choose our games accordingly. So, procrastinators, I will try to admire your game, although personally, I’ll opt to play something else.

Useless Days

When you think you did a lot …

I must practice what I preach because, whenever I don’t follow a to-do list, I’m lost. I do this, I do that, I do whatever I think is worth doing at the time — but, at the end of the day, I see that some priorities slipped through the cracks.

This is not a good thing.

So, let this preacher say to the choir, “Make a to-do list, and do it!” It’s all about accomplishment, isn’t it? And, if I’m doing things that don’t put forth certain goals for the day, I don’t get that sense of achievement.

Believe me, it’s true.

Well, at least posting on this blog would’ve been on my to-do list, if I had made one!