One of my very first posts on the Quest had to do with procrastination--and referred to a book by psychologists Jane Burka and Lenora Yuen of the same name. One of the fascinating ideas Burka and Yuen explore is the way procrastinators experience time. They offer a number of strategies that are specifically designed to address common misconceptions, pitfalls, and time-wasting patterns that are common to procrastinators.
One such strategy is the "un-schedule," a method developed by psychologist Neil Fiore and detailed in his book, The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play. "The un-schedule is a weekly calendar of all of your committed activities," explain Burka and Yuen (B & Y). One of its main advantages is that by honestly assessing how you expect to spend your time, you can see how much time you really have available to work towards any particular goal.
I've found that the "un-schedule" is useful for things I don't want to do and am thus absolutely, positively convinced I have no time for--like exercising. Convinced I don't have a single hour in an entire week to take a swim, lift some weights, or take a yoga class, I made a quick spreadsheet and started filling in the time.
Following the direcitons in the book, I wrote down everything I could predict doing in the coming week, no matter how trivial. "If you always watch the evening news, Monday night sports, or other favorite television programs, put them down, " B & Y advise. I don't watch the evening news or any kind of sport, unless you count watching Patti Blagojevich, Sanjaya, and a couple of the Baldwin brothers hang by their arms until they fall in an attempt to get immunity on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! "Remember, we are not asking you to write down what you should be doing," B & Y write, which means I can actually feel virtuous admitting my Celebrity addiction. True, this meant I had five hours a week to watch has-beens, also-rans, or, in the case of Patti, a never-ran, bicker and eat live bugs. So?
In the end, even after taking into account time toted up watching Celebrity, as well as surfing, sleeping, and the rather ambigious "fun weekend activities" in addition to working, writing, commuting, eating, and doing (rather minimal) housework, I still had a good 7 hours available to schedule in some exercise. Guess it's time to start looking into that yoga class, after all.
Above: The shaded areas indicate potential time to work on a particular goal--i.e. exercising.
Below: Download your own "un-schedule" (pdf reader required)
