Accepting the limitations of my time = peace, self-awareness, effectiveness

Continuing on the theme of aha moments via "felt-sense navigation and self-analysis," it recently hit home more deeply, how my time issues are creations of my own mind. Not that I'm making up the idea that there isn't enough time in the day to do all the things I want to do, that's pretty true. But the suffering associated with that.

It struck me, that I'm living in a fantasy land, where maybe if I try hard enough or use the right strategy, I will be able to get all the things done in the amount of time I have. But of course, that's not likely. And me clinging to that fantasy and trying to make it happen, isn't very productive. It means I'm spending a bunch of time trying to 'figure it out' rather than just doing what I can, in the time I have.

It also makes me mispriorize stuff, because I'm clinging to the delusion that I can get my huge list done today, so I might as well just start wherever and work my way down. If I was being more realistic, I would look at what is most important to get done, and start with that, because I know it's unlikely I'll get most of it done. The at least I'll have gotten the important parts done.

This makes me think of the idea behind the book "Four thousand weeks" https://a.co/d/3Sp9sJM

Which is in part about accepting our limitations, especially in terms of time.

Working from a more realistic expectation about time, how much I have, and how much things will take to accomplish, makes for better planning, and confronts me with the tradeoffs I have to make, beforehand, when I'm still big picture and thinking clearly. Rather than trying to adjust when I'm entangled in the middle of something and feel the need to finish it in an overly-attached, muddle-brained state. Or choosing my next task from a tired, narrow focus perspective in the middle of the day when I'm in doing things mode.

I think a lot of my planning about my day-to-day routine comes from a wishful thinking perspective. Then at the end of the day when I'm confronted with failing to follow through again, I feel like I'm lousy, rather than seeing the truth: I doomed myself to failure from the start, like a bad boss who insists on a project deadline that's half of what you know you actually need, because he either doesn't understand your work at all, or is just thinking about what he wants, not what you need.

This understanding, plus the additional self-awareness check-in's throughout the day ("how did that go? What would I do differently if I could?") Prompted by my "felt-sense navigation and self analysis" mindset, feels like it's nudging me towards more useful practices and choices. Sometimes it makes me stop beating myself up, because when I ask "what would I do differently?" I realize it actually was a decent choice, and it's my "should voices" coming from external sources that are making me think otherwise.

OK, that's another blog done, almost caught up. I think I'll stop for the day, time to do some other important work that I'll feel good about doing in hindsight 👍😊🙌

With love and wishes for your happiness,

-Isaac