Embracing Irregularity
In the last year, my life has taken a lot of turns.
I spent the first 3 months rapping up my nearly 4 year tenure at the old 9-5 engineering job I used to have. (Thank God that's over)
Then, I threw myself a little more seriously into internet marketing where I was spending a good chunk of my day at various San Diego coffee shops and beaches, working away.
Then, I ventured around the world for a couple of months where I essentially had no schedule, worked when I could, and adventured everywhere in between.
Now, I work and study in my pockets of time between classes, and adventure and socialize during the rest of the time.
Basically, there is no semblance of regularity or routine in my day-to-day life. I have classes here and there, I have weird days off, there's ALWAYS events going on at school, and my friends (including the my 60 new classmates) are always down to hang out.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
There's something totally refreshing about living a dynamic life. I once wrote a post about the importance of establishing some sort of routine. I STILL think this is incredibly important.
I know what you're thinking..."Ha Arun! I'm totally calling you out! You're contradicting yourself and making absolutely NO sense for the first time in your life. Get with it!"
Settle down and allow me to explain. I am still incredibly routine about certain things. I exercise everyday without fail. I usually spend some time playing music. I study almost everyday.
Basically, there exists certain activities that I do EVERY DAY. They may happen at different times, but they are there, and ingrained in my daily schedule. The key to keeping these things around is to create a semblance of a plan every morning. If I know I have a busy evening ahead, I sneak over to the gym in the afternoon and bang out a workout. If I have an adventurous Saturday in the works, I'll plan a 3 or 4 our block on Sunday to get all my studying taken care of.
I usually have a mental map of my schedule for about the next five days. This allows me to fit everything in while wasting very little time.
It's all about eliminating "down" time.
In fact, last night I was out with a bunch of my friends from school, and one of my friends was sarcastically lamenting to the group about how much he "hates" me.
"I HATE Arun! He always tells me about how incredible his weekends were and all these adventures that I missed out on! He always has some hot date lined up for the week, plays 50 different instruments, reads 1000 page novels, AND somehow manages to get all his homework done and do better on the tests than me...WHAT an asshole!!!"
Obviously he was exaggerating a bit, but I DO like being active andthe only way I can get away with it, is by being an excellent time manager and planner.
I used to think it would be hard to get back into the student lifestyle, but on the contrary, it's been anything but. I love school, I love studying (yes...I'm a nerd-baller), and I love having the off Wednesday afternoon to just ditch everything and go to the beach.
Irregularity opens up your days to so many more possibilities and makes life more interesting. So much so that I don't think I can EVER go back to being "regular."
