I might have to become a schedule Nazi

About two months ago, I drew up a new weekly schedule for myself that I was quite proud of. I had time for stand up comedy, I had time for rock climbing, I had time for family, and I had time for some guitar practice, and also some time to work on my Youtube channel. This schedule was going to work!

I did not stick to the schedule at all. At first, it was because I was busy taking care of my wife who had Covid, and then I got Covid, and then there was a week where we were visiting my in-laws, and then last week, my wife had a lot of social activities and my son was having a nervous breakdown from a mock exam, so I was spending some time guiding him through it, to be honest, I could have started trying to stick to my schedule if I wanted to, but I thought, oh hell, I'll just start next week. Which is this week.

Now I'm looking at this schedule and basically, I don't think it's going to work. Not because I didn't draw up a good schedule. The only thing that will need changing is I have to add stand up paddling to it. We tried it two weeks ago, and it seems like a fun family activity, so it's high priority and I'm throwing out Sunday morning's writing, guitar session for it. But apart from that, the schedule looks the same as before, so what's the problem? The problem was the schedule kept getting interrupted by unforeseen events, in other words, life. Life is messy. Life is full of celebrations, emergencies, sudden opportunities, and we have to break away from our regular schedules for it. But then after that, it's time to go back to the schedule, and then there will be more events pulling us away from it, and every day is a battle between the regular schedule and unexpected events and we just have to decide which ones are important to us. Even with the few friends that I have, I will never get anything done if I went to all their birthdays, weddings, funerals,  shows, exhibitions, book launches and concerts. At some point, I have to say no, I can't attend this acquaintance's baby shower because I'm a comedian/aspiring writer/content creator and and tonight, my schedule says I have to stay home to work. I don't know what I will do, but it's my business and nobody else's. I might be writing a joke. I might be writing a novel. Or, I might be watching Conan (O'Brien, not the barbarian).

My wife has 50 times more friends than I do, so it boggles my mind how she handles it. To her credit, she is very good at excluding me from her crazy schedule of social activities.

It will never be the right time to stick to the schedule, but it is also always the right time. So, I guess this is a reminder to myself to always try my best to stick to it. It will be hard. I will have to make exceptions for life's surprises. Every day is going to be a battle and I will probably lose more battles than I win, but I must never give up fighting for my schedule, because the schedule is the road to the dream.

In three months, I will be 51. I would like to do my one-hour show before I'm 52. I need to be a bit of a schedule Nazi.



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