2 Lessons to Learn in 40 Days
40 days into 2023.
For the first time in my life, I have felt every one of those forty days. This new slowness of time is so unusual for me. February of last year I couldn’t stop saying, “Can you believe it is already the second month of the year?” Most annual beginnings pass in the blink of an eye, and it is not until summer that I catch hold of the time and make the most of it.
So, what has been different about 2023?
One major choice that is affecting my life right now is holding fast to rhythms. I have never been one for schedules, to do lists, planners, or routines. Opting for the free spirit approach my afternoons can end up feeling pretty aimless sometimes. The need to start my third manuscript was itching at me, on top of balancing home care with a new career. So I couldn’t opt for wiling away the hours like I will once again in in a different season.
Commitment to writing has become a no-compromise. And I am sure that you have a few non-negotiables in your life, too. Last November, I challenged myself to make time stretch like saltwater taffy. I’m no expert, but thinking about my days and weeks with rhythms is doing the trick.
This should not be a surprise to me, because deep down I’ve known this for a long time. This is my ninth year of being a night shift employee. Back when I was really struggling with my body staying health on night shift, a nursing resource gave me one of the best tips ever. The training suggested that night nurses sleep in the sunshine. The article read, “Ditch the dark out curtains!” Ever since my body has stayed healthier and my energy maintains because my body is still on a natural circadian rhythm.
Our bodies respond to rhythms.
Once I purposefully started repeating behaviors at the same time every day then my body, my energy levels, and my mind got with the program. In forty days, no less! On Tuesdays, I seem to make it out the door with the dog a whole three hours early for a walk because I know afternoon Bible study is on the agenda. Thursday nights I begin to crave dinner at four in the afternoon because that it when Johnathon and I sit down to a really special mid-week meal. Fridays I sleep in to switch back to night shift, but every other weekday morning I wake up without an alarm clock at 8 am. I write better at two pm. My hamstrings stretch further at nine am.
Best of all, I am not looking to the screens in my life, phone, tv, excess Internet tabs, to use up the extra minutes between the half hour and hour on the clock.
Maybe this is old news to you? Some people are naturally disciplined to use their time to its fullest potential. I am just learning this skill. Before I would stay up for extended days, lengthening the time I had to work all while still being inefficient. My body was overused. My mind was overworked. And I got less creative as time passed. These new rhythms of designated certain tasks to certain times, and cutting myself off when the allotted time is up, is changing my entire mindset.
2. Deadlines can be encouraging.
I am also able to successfully return to tasks more frequently than I have been in the past. Going from a “get everything under this banner done” to a “chew the elephant down one bite at a time” approach is improving my writing, time management, and creative problem solving skills. These experience driven disciplines are not mastered overnight. And yet for two and a half years I was trying to finish manuscripts for novels and nine thousand word short-stories in one sitting. Daily practice is alleviating my creative lethargy, and I know can help you with where you are stunted, too.
It's about conscientious routines that help us catch hold of the time that is overlooked in our daily schedule.
Would you share with me, in the comments, some of things you have noticed about your schedule since 2023 began. Have you learned anything new about yourself in the past forty days? Is there anything you are hoping to learn in the next forty?