I came across a great quote today, one that surprised and pleased me and seemed to come at just the right time since I’ve been mulling over the why and why nots of having a schedule and why it might be time for me to get back to mine.
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living. Each day is the same, so you remember the series afterward as a blurred and powerful pattern.
This quote, from The Writing Life by Annie Dillard, which I came across at Brain Pickings in “How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives: Annie Dillard on Presence Over Productivity,” resonated. I haven’t thought of a schedule in quite this way before, and I like the idea that a schedule isn’t so much a prison as it is a scaffolding and a haven.
I could use a haven; frankly, I could use some scaffolding.
I love the idea of looking back and seeing “a blurred and powerful pattern” in my days past.
I’m going to build my scaffolding from my old schedule, and following another piece of advice from someone else, I’m going to start the day with creative work first.
Failure is always an option, but I don’t mind. Gotta (re)start somewhere. :)