This week I’ve had a 99 icecream in Princes Street Gardens, I’ve made some tiny poem zines and I’ve done the final edit on the poems for my first pamphlet, all whilst not having had any plan in mind other than ‘go with what feels right’.
It’s been interesting. I wanted to see what having no set plan was like… I didn’t like it. I don’t overplan my weeks and days, but I usually have three biggish things I want to get done in a week and then one or two tasks I want to get finished per day. Those all tend to be baby steps towards bigger goals. Without those little prompts to myself I have felt a bit lost.
I am quite intuitive with my planning, I rely on thinking about how I’m likely to be feeling and where my energy’s going be lying before I try and schedule a task; if my mind’s not in the right place or I’m low on energy, I’m better off doing something else if I can, rather than doing a half-arsed job and having to re-do it.
I’m also not a great ‘turn up at my desk at 8.30am and work until 5.30pm’ sort. I like starting my day with a coffee and a read, followed by working through the tasks I’ve set myself for the day. Sometimes I might finish quickly, sometimes I might be working all day. On other days I might just take myself off and visit an exhibition or just have a wander if that’s what feels right and I’m not up against a deadline.
I suppose I’m lucky in that I’m a pretty good judge of how long tasks take me and I also know that I usually have my most creative hours in the morning, so I can fit my tasks in the right block of time.
I’m also lucky that I have control of large portions of my time, so I have the luxury of being able to choose when/if I work and/or play.
And I know that I trust my intuition. I have enough experience to be able to judge whether I’m in the right frams of mind and have enough energy to make my best effort at a task at a given time and if I don’t, I know I’ll have left nyself with the flexibility to be able to juggle my work days/week a bit so I can change plans.
How intuitive are you able to be in your work/life?