Maybe you're like me.
Maybe you're like me...in fact, in this case, I bet you are.
The Exercise
Tell me, reader...what does the perfect day look like to you?
Get out a piece of paper and write down everything you'd like to do in this perfect day.
Make a list and next to each item, write an estimated amount of time you’d spend on each activity.
For example...
Make sure to focus on your perfect day, NOT the perfect 24 hours.
For this exercise, imagine doing everything you’d want to do for as much time as you’d want to do it, even if that means 11 hours of Netflix.
So, what does your perfect day look like?
Was there enough time in a 24 hour period for your perfect day? When I do this exercise, I often come up with an answer between 26-32 hours. Maybe you’re like me, with more to do than you have time for. Maybe 24 hours is just right. Or maybe 24 hours is more than enough for you.
For those of you who have more to do in a perfect day than you have time, what gets cut first?
Would you trim the time equitably across everything? Would you cut individual activities? Do you prioritize work, rest, relationships, or something else?
Now riddle me this: how close it that to what your day currently looks like?
To Work or Not to Work?
I like to do this perfect day exercise periodically because it is an illuminating look at my current priorities. The act of listing out everything I’d do on a perfect day and then trying to make that day happen within 24 hours forces me to confront my priorities and my limitations. It also forces me to confront my current schedule and behaviors.
My friend David posted this tweet on Friday. It resonated with me.
"Yeah babe, I'm just going to go play some video games to relax"-opens up computer and starts catching up on work-WHY AM I LIKE THIS!?
— David Martin 🇺🇽 (@uxhacks_) February 5, 2022 I love video games. I find them calming, but I often feel guilty indulging in them, as if Thursday evening at 8:30pm is somehow supposed to be reserved for catching up on work rather than something relaxing.
There’s an often cited tweet by Randi Zuckerberg, sister of robot-demon pretending to be human: Mark Zuckerberg:
The entrepreneur's dilemma:Maintaining friendships. Building a great company. Spending time w/family. Staying fit. Getting sleep.Pick 3.
— randizuckerberg.eth (@randizuckerberg) December 9, 2011 While I don’t entire agree with this tweet, there is an important idea in there. Life is about choices, and what this tweet implies is this idea we’ve collective internalized, that we simply cannot fit it all in. Part of the reason we think this is because of the oversized importance that work takes in our lives. In light of all of our responsibilities at work, there’s no possible way we could fit it all in.
But is this actually true?
Could it really happen?
Realistically, what you want as a standard perfect day, is probably not THAT far off from what you could be doing now. Sure, there’s probably a bit less time working, and a bit more time engaging in leisure or catching up with friends but...is that a bad thing? What would it take for you to tip-toe closer to the perfect day? Really? What