For most of my 70-something years, I've pursued what interested me. In school, I had a class schedule and assignments with deadlines. I attended, turned in my term papers, and took exams. Work became less scheduled. I had office patients most days and people who needed hospital attention. Consultations and admissions came randomly. Phone calls mostly got squeezed in. Pharmaceutical and insurance representatives stopped by mostly on their schedules. I accomplished what needed doing but enjoyed the autonomy of what I would do when. Retirement carried over that imprint. No pressure to time most things. When I enrolled in OLLI, classes met at specified times, and I had to allot transit time there and back. Synagogue services commenced at announced times but few people arrived at the beginning. Like most in attendance, I calculated how much time I wanted to be present, knowing that concluding prayers and kiddush occurred at reasonably predictable hours, then adjust my arrival to suit.
Our modern age exacts a price for that flexibility. Once retired, there are no times that need an alarm clock, let alone acquiescing when tired to meet somebody else's leverage over me. Social media, emails, cell phones can absorb whatever blocks of time their addictive nature imposes. No set meal times. Minimal commutes. The onset and conclusion of Shabbos each week sets the weekly structure.
And for a while, I drifted along. Not feeling particularly well, accomplishing few of the semi-annual goals I write down every December and June, getting too absorbed in FB, then descending into Twitter, I realized that some structure would enhance things. And a commitment to stopping what I should stop.
Each half year I include physical goals, usually stated as a desired waist circumference and weight which never achieve. It won't get fulfilled without a system. Thus, exercise now has a set time and intensity, one that I fully respect. Stretching also has a time. Measurements not attained, but I feel better.
After endless interrupted eveings, I took control of sleep. Set time to turn off screens, review what I did each day, turn out lights, and get up the next morning. This has also been regimented. Dental first, then weekly weight, then downstairs for some sunlight in the form of retrieving the newspaper from the end of the driveway. Water first, then brew a k-cup in the same mug. No email until I finish the coffee. Treadmill if on tap that day right after coffee. Crossword puzzles in the morning.
My week has creative activity built in. Make a YouTube video every Monday afternoon. Make dinner for Shabbos every Friday, with defrosting on Wednesday. BP taken twice a week and recorded immediately in an Excel log.
Some things do not take well to appointments with myself. For those, I have a timer. Housework fifteen minutes, reading twenty-five minutes, writing twenty-five minutes. I learned to avoid zero minutes.
Social media got the heave-ho on Rosh Hashana. FB gone, or at least my responses gone. I will share my writing or videos onto my site. The algorithm will do anything to get me back, going so far as to clutter my email with notices to look at what the people I care most about have posted. I almost never bite. Twitter gone. Reddit selective to responses where I can help somebody else. Just divesting this has freed up blocks of time I did not realize I had. Sometimes I use it well, other times not.
This process of small upgrades has taken about two years. Results display as mixed. I feel better with sleep and exercise assurance. My library of videos now exceeds 100, my writing much more than that. Public recognition for any of this nil. Expanded friendships perhaps starting to slide from my FB exit. My Space largely completed, other house projects in different stages of making progress without renewal.
Yet, I benefit from a sense of what to pursue when. Keeping promises to myself, the essence of this change, has rewarded me unconditionally.
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