Last Friday I woke up and decided just to do what I wanted to do. To be in my flow and forget about my schedule for the day, which I had planned the day before. I felt a bit fed up of sticking to a schedule.
It started with me turning off my alarm at my usual get up time of 06:30 and going back to sleep until my 2-year-old daughter woke me with a hug at 08:00, which was late for her as it’s normal 07:00 when she gets up. A Flow day for her too 🙂
We chilled in bed chatting about the day ahead and played before I got up and meditated. I felt awesome! Ready for the day ahead.
Breakfast was a new protein shake recipe and I have to say it is the must amazing shake I have had. It was 8 tablespoons of gelatin, 200ml of coconut milk, a heaped tablespoon of raw organic cocoa, 3 small bananas and 330ml of coconut water (serves two).
I wrote in my journal for ages. I’m not sure how long but I was on a roll and really enjoyed getting my thoughts down on paper. It cleared my head and gave me clarity and started from such a simple statement “I love the experience of the cinema”. I may write about that here soon.
I listened to some music, Alter Bridge if you are interested, and then a profile by BBC Radio 4 on Dr Dre. I have a very eclectic music taste 🙂 Remembering I had a guitar lesson the following week I ordered some new strings for my Fender Squirer Strat. It’s the first time I will pick up a guitar in 18 years and I’m really excited about it.
Once feeling ready I started working on the one thing I wanted to do that day, continue to work on and develop my authentic self and my passion. I started the Live Off Your Passion course from Scott Dinsmore to make sure I have correctly identified the things I am most passionate about in life and to learn more about being authentic. It’s a cool course and I’m really enjoying it.
I then wrote some more in my journal and completed a couple of tasks that needed to be done that day from prior obligations.
Then I made a HUGE mistake. Whilst sending a one-sentence email out to notify a client the task was completed I took a sneaky peak at my ‘this week’ folder in my inbox. My team move emails from my inbox into different folders of whether they need my attention ASAP, this week, later, whether the emails are sales or to be deleted.
The top email I read required a detailed response, which could have waited for the following week but because I read it I know it would be in my head all weekend so I had to reply to it. It took 45 minutes to reply as I had to check facts & figures and make sure the detailed language was in plain English.
I was gutted for not being disciplined enough to leave the emails alone but a big lesson learned, even though I already know not to check my emails if I haven’t scheduled the time to reply.
The main lesson I learned from my in flow day Friday was that it’s liberating to do what I want when I want to do it and in my own time, without a deadline.
I reaffirmed the lesson to only check my emails when I have time to reply, scheduled or not.
I also learned that having a schedule is great and allows me to get a lot of important stuff done but I can’t live in the schedule all of the time. I need a break to just be a bit more me. Everything in moderation 🙂
For me too much structure is suffocating, it makes me feel claustrophobic. And too little structure makes me feel like I’m floating around not getting anything done and not moving towards my goals.
The optimal for me is to have structure whilst allowing to be in my flow, having harmony between the two. That could be within the structure, I plan to work on tasks that keep me in my flow, or that could be having a few days of regimented plans with a follow the flow day afterwards.
Being in flow is such a great feeling and I will start to encourage my schedule to be more in flow too.
