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Quick post today. Because I’m bad at time management, so I can’t write a long one. Which, naturally, has me thinking about time management.
My consulting gig is done. I’m focusing on magick and writing full time for at least a month. And I’m realizing how important structure is. Without it, I get days like today, where I’m jetlagged in the morning (a perfect excuse to not work), then have coffee with friends in the afternoon (can’t work then, that’s impolite), and then I’m tired in the evening.
So, here are my daily goals:
- 2 hours writing. This can go into either posts or my book, though usually it’ll go into my book, with daily posts being excerpts.
- 3 sessions on new magick. Basic manifesting and energy healing don’t count here, it has to be something I find challenging. Each session is probably 20 minutes, with an hour or so of rest after.
Let’s assume I start at 9. That means 9-11:30 is writing. (I’ll budget a half-hour break in the middle.) Then some lunch. Then a magick session at 12:30, another at 2, and another at 3:30, and I’m done resting at 5.
Wow, that takes the whole day. Honestly, I’m surprised. Sure, a lot of that is rest, but really, a lot of any workday is rest — activities like socializing with coworkers, responding to emails, and sitting in meetings. I rarely got in more than 3.5 hours of creative work at the office anyway, so I’ll call that a win here.
And now I notice: Laying out this schedule showed me that I can’t schedule coffee in the afternoon, because I really do need those 8 hours. And it helped me commit to working at certain times, which is vastly better than trying to decide in the moment whether to work or play video games. (Hint: When deciding between work and video games right this second, work often loses.) That really was more useful than I expected.
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What exactly do you do (or not do) while “resting”? Meditate? Sleep? Light entertainment? Exercise? Just curious what that involves. I’ve found a 20 minute “power nap” right after magickal work seems to give the brain some time to process things. Also works for memorizing stuff or learning anything new. For example to memorize something (which I’m not terribly good at): I read it outloud over and over, practicing memorizing one line at a time, then two, etc by looking away and back. After 20 minutes of study, take a 20 minute nap. The memorization process seems to keep working while I sleep and I can usually recite the whole thing when I wake up. Anyway, just wondering.
I usually default to light entertainment — read, watch a show, video games, something like that. Although light exercise (go for a walk) seems to do a better job, so maybe I’ll be disciplined and try that some. I wasn’t thinking of optimizing my rest methods, but it’s a big chunk of my day, so it seems like an obvious thing to optimize. Thanks for helping me think of it.
I find swimming to be very relaxing, but this is me and my affinity with the element of water. I once heard someone who felt some occultists in the western world would sometimes forget the physical body to concentrate solely on the spiritual comparing to other cultures where the individual put an greater emphasis on both the physical and spiritual. ( yoga, martial arts, etc )
I think both the physical and spiritual should be given an equal share of attention for an individual to be fully balanced. If I would live near the sea I would probably take a walk on the beach to relax, but this is just me.