[2023-03-16] Incremental changes

I recently made one seemingly small change to my routine: I shower before I have breakfast with my daughter rather than after. Instead of getting up at 7:25 on weekday mornings, just in time to join Mel for breakfast, I now get up at 7:00. By the time she heads to the kitchen, I've already showered, dressed and dried my hair. It gets my day off to a productive start and makes me feel like I'm hitting the ground running rather than meandering through the first hour of my day.

That small but meaningful shift reminds me of something James Clear says in his book Atomic Habits: "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." (My son often repeats this quote.)

Systems don't have to be elaborate. They can be as simple as the order in which we do certain tasks (e.g., floss, brush, rinse), the commitments we make to others (e.g., daily walks with a family member) or the apps we use to support our goals (e.g., Duolingo).

Clear also says: "If you can get 1% better each day for one year, you'll end up 37 times better by the time you're done." In other words, improvements can be tiny, almost inconsequential. But a small change can lead to greater efficiency and effectiveness, which increases the likelihood that we will achieve our goals and live the life we want to live.

Last week, when considering the pros and cons of paid employment (which I shared in To work or not to work in retirement), I drafted a weekday schedule that emphasized time for my priorities [identified in brackets]:
  • 07:00 - Wake up, take a shower, get dressed, dry my hair [Organizing]
  • 07:30 - Have breakfast with Mel [Family]
  • 08:00 - Go for a walk with Chris, pick up groceries as needed [Family, Health, Food]
  • 09:30 - Use Duolingo to learn Portuguese and brush up on my French [Learning]
  • 10:00 - Do an organizing project (e.g., housecleaning, digital organizing) [Organizing] OR meet a friend for coffee [Friends]
  • 12:00 - Have lunch with Chris and Mel, go for a walk with Mel [Family, Health]
  • 01:00 - Write (draft Jenesis blog post, do research) [Writing]
  • 02:30 - Chat with Mom [Family]
  • 03:00 - Prepare food for dinner, bake, have supper and clean up [Food, Family]
  • 06:00 - Finalize Jenesis post, develop visual, publish post [Writing]
  • 07:30 - Watch Jeopardy with Chris [Family]
  • 08:00 - Do more Duolingo [Learning]
  • 09:00 - Enjoy free time (e.g., puzzle, reading) [Peace]
  • 10:00 - Chat with Mel [Family]
  • 11:00 - Go to bed [Sleep]
I'm not yet adhering to this schedule. For example, I don't always write in the afternoon, which means I end up drafting my post in the evening and publishing it later than I'd like. (Honestly, I often need the pressure of a looming deadline to get me to focus on my writing.) The later I publish my post, the later I go to bed, which is often between 11:00 PM and midnight.

Of course, my adherence to the schedule is flexible. However, I have found that the more closely my days look like this ideal, the more aligned I feel with my priorities and the more at peace I am.

There's one other advantage to a slightly earlier start to my day. Given that Chris is an early-to-bed-early-to-rise kind of guy, the sooner I can be ready to get out the door for our morning walk, the happier he is. They say, "happy wife, happy life," but I prefer "happy spouse, happy house."