How scheduling every minute of my day gives me freedom and fuels my creativity
I used to think that you couldn’t schedule creativity. That you can’t plan joy. That making time for mindfulness defeated the purpose — that defining moments into minutes made it impossible to really live in the moment.
I didn’t want to live an ordinary life — full of income-generation based goal directed activity and the shackles of unnecessary responsibilities. Lacking in the creative expression, thoughtful reflection and enraptured contemplation of the existential void that gave me a sense of living authentically.
For many years, I lived the kind of unfulfilling life that results from refusal to engage with goal creation or organisation, in favour of doing what I was ‘in the mood’ for, or whatever ‘felt meaningful’.
Then, I realised that creativity and freedom require support. It is fairly obvious that it is counter-productive to quit your job in the name of freedom, because (as anyone trying to live on the income from writing knows) poverty restricts your options more than undesirable employment. I had to learn that, similarly, it is counter-productive to avoid effective time management for more freedom because misuse of time hinders creative freedom more than planning and routine.
