Bozeman schedule
Establishing a constructive daily schedule is the primary challenge of a mobile lifestyle. I’ve been living in a different location by the season in 2017. Each location has presented a unique case study, with varying public amenities, contrasting climates, and different local cuisines, to name only a few factors. It takes time to determine what works. But when I’ve found the appropriate circadian rhythm, adherence has proven surprisingly easy. If you build a conveyor belt, and there are no friction points, it will cycle effortlessly.
After a few weeks of trial and error, I found a routine that worked well in Jamaica this winter. After an early rise, each day afforded generous windows for exercise, eating and writing. It was revelatory to feel everything fall into place. Stretching, meals, emailing, texting, social media, bills, swimming, walking, running, writing, random errands, dogs, and music all found time in my day. If you structure your day properly, and you can manage to write for just three hours, as an example, then the other 21 hours are pressure-free.

Frankly, I never quite got there in New Orleans this spring. Nagging injuries led to a lack of exercise. And lack of self-control resulted in frequent consumption of fried shrimp and ooey-gooey cake. My sleep schedule was inconsistent. I woke up a bit too late most mornings, having been sucked into a forgettable NBA playoff game the night prior.
It’s a great city, and I will happily return to visit, but I was ready to leave New Orleans at the end of the season. My summer in the Rockies promised a fresh start, with the opportunity to reestablish a schedule conducive to exercise and writing.
Silverton in the first half of June was good, but perhaps not great. I struggled with balancing hiking and writing. My recent history with hiking has entailed mostly 5+ hour hikes, covering 10+ miles on a given day. In Silverton, I tried to establish an every-other-day schedule, whereby some days were writing-centric, and others were hiking-intensive. But it was hard to keep that oscillating daily schedule. Frankly, I wound up not using my time very well.
The other thing that was challenging in Silverton was syncing my work routine with the weather. A typical weather day in Colorado showcases a lovely morning, followed by accumulating clouds and possible thunderstorms in the mid-to-late afternoon. Ideally, one would exercise outdoors in the morning and then work indoors in the afternoon. But my every-other-day regime complicated this.
I’ve retooled my schedule in Bozeman. Rather than doing 5+ hour hikes every other day, I do 2- to 3-hour hikes daily. My exercise window is from approximately 8:00 AM — 11:00 AM. It’s been working well. Bozeman lends itself to this practice because, given the lower elevations, there are mostly small-to-medium-sized hikes here rather than the medium-to-large hikes, typical of Colorado.

Bozeman has presented a nice opportunity to reset. I had gotten away from a set, constructive schedule. I was in Aspen for a bit in between Silverton and Bozeman, visiting friends, and my schedule fluctuated each day. Consequently, I didn’t get much writing done.
Recently, I’ve settled on seven hours of sleep. I wake up early and stretch by the creek near my tent. I have windows set up for the day. 6:30 AM — 8:00 AM is for my morning routine. 8:00 AM — 11:00 AM is for exercise.
11:00AM — 1:00PM is for bathing, lunch, and driving into town. I have several good spots for bathing. The swim center in town, the hot springs on the outskirts of town, or the creeks and rivers of the broader area are all good options. They allow me to avoid driving redundancy that can be a problem in the vast expanses of Montana.

And the balance of the day is mostly library time. The library in Bozeman is incredible. It’s modern, and it has terrific light. Also, importantly, it has large workspaces. I try to park my car in one of the few shady spaces in the parking lot. After dinner in town, I drive back to my campsite. The 45-minute drive home is spectacular, punctuated by the about 9:00 PM sunset that paints the vaunted big sky.
Besides writing and my digital life rituals of email, texts, and social media, I have one or two miscellaneous to-do list items that I’ll try to tackle each day in the library. It’s methodical and not overwhelming to parse things out this way.
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