Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.
Alan Watts
In January, I began writing in a 365-day notebook. I wanted to record the number of creative hours I spent each day with the goal to reach 1000 within the 365-day period. I first heard about measuring creative hours on the Tim Ferriss podcast with Jim Collins.
I hope to hit 1000 hours every single 365 days cycle, every single one, every single day. No matter what.
Jim Collins
Creative hours may be research, important conversations with people that inform your work, writing, or reading, but it all must serve the work that you seek to produce.
I launched into 2020 with enthusiasm, goals, dreams, and plans. We began the year in Esperance, swimming, four-wheel-driving, and sitting by the campfire with friends.
Then, I flew to London for a week on the spur of the moment. I had an opportunity to meet some literary agents and spend time with our son and daughter-in-law so I booked a flight on Tuesday and flew the next day. (Oh, the good old days!)
The week I flew back from London, it became apparent that the rumours of a pandemic were more than rumours. The Covid-19 pandemic took over the news cycle and the world shut down.
A lockdown ensued, we cancelled four months of travel to the US and Europe, work was cancelled, and we were confined to not just our state, but our city, then our homes.
My 365 journal became a log of how we spent our days at home and not out travelling the world. It turned into a record of the most unusual year we’ve ever lived.
Being confined to home caused me to visit many places through memories of days spent in beautiful places with special people.
So, I logged my creative hours and measured the days and they seemed to blend into sameness. I began to lose sight of the everyday joys and adventures of my normal life. I lost perspective of the measures of my life as a whole and became bound by measuring my work. I forgot to measure the joy.
I’m not a numbers girl. Math does my head in. But there is something about measuring my days that causes me to live gratefully, productively, adventurously, and even happily.
Jim Collins also spoke about measuring each day on a scale of +2 to -2. He would note every day and observe patterns. He would look at the +2 days and say, ‘We should do more of that.’
If there were too many -2 days he would say, ‘Let’s do less of that.’
Collin’s scale encompasses priorities–time with loved ones, exercise, creative work, inspiration and so on. Whatever the key touchstones of your day are, they contribute to your score for the day.
A plus two is a great day. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t challenging–it might have been a day of really hard hiking. Maybe it was a day of really hard writing but it felt really good. Maybe it was day filled with significant conversation with a friend. But what it adds up to is a plus two.
Plus one is another positive day. Zero is meh. Minus one is a day with a negative tone. And minus two are the bad days.
If you score the day before you go to bed, it’ll be an honest score. If you try to remember how you felt seventeen days ago, or even five days ago, your feelings will be distorted by how you’re feeling today.
Jim Collins
These are the measures that I worked hard to try and put into practice in 2020.
In trying to do more of what contributed to creating +2 days, we deliberately set up Zoom conversations with friends and family, went on a mountain bike ride or hike to get out of the house, walked to the café to get a takeaway coffee, and visited elderly relatives to help them feel connected.
The measure of our days became the measure of our months, became the measure of our year, and ultimately will become the measure of our lives.
If you only had one day, month, or year to live, wouldn’t you want it to be the best it could be?
The darker times balance the light and without the dark, the light wouldn’t have as much significance. 2020 taught us this.
Without travel and especially during lockdown, our days became focused on being rather than doing.
We missed travel–the inspiration of being on the road, soaking in the unfamiliar, being immersed in another culture–but we had to find some way to be here and be inspired.
In the Covid-19 days of 2020, we learned how to spend more time soaking up the familiar and finding something new in it.
We asked ourselves, did I do something today that I simply let myself BE in? Did I listen to the wind in the trees, the chirping and warbling of birds?
Did I do something kind for someone?
Did I send a message of encouragement–a prayer, a present, or pause to give thanks?
Did I practise gratefulness?
Did I find small moments of joy?
There are days when emptiness is spacious.
Florida Scott-Maxwell
We had a lot of empty days in 2020. Some of them were frustrating, but we learned that nothing to do means your mind can be spacious enough to receive new ideas, generous thoughts to others, dreams, quietness, peacefulness, and so much more.
When our minds are assaulted by sensory inputs–social media, piped music in shopping centres, the constant cries of those who need us, our minds fire in different ways.
In quietness and spaciousness, the world opened up in a whole new way. The lack of expectations and need to be places fell away for a lot of us.
It hasn’t all been easy. We’ve all been carrying our ‘and alsos’. There are layers of hurt and frustration and grief and mental pressure and loss that have hit each one of us. But, in the midst of all this, the measure of 2020 is in the way we lived despite all the ‘and alsos’.
TS Eliot measured his life with coffee spoons. I’m measuring my life in gratitude, adventures, in connection, in faith, and in logging those creative hours.
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
T.S Eliot
It’s three days into 2021, so why not introduce a few measures–count your blessings, introduce a few adventures, (even locally or virtually) and have faith that over time this too shall pass. We may even look back on these days with gratitude and thanks.
I flipped through my 2020 365 Days book and have seen blessings and failure and frustration and confinement and grief and joys and adventure in a complicated mix of experiences and emotions.
2020 was a bummer of a year in many ways, but we’re still here. We’re still standing. Our friends and family are healthy when so many in the world are suffering.
I managed to wrap up three projects in 2020 that had been sitting on my computer for a long time. I’m set to launch three books in six months with a fourth almost ready to go.
When I added up my creative hours, they exceeded one thousand hours.
We can’t always be ‘On’. Some days we achieve a little and others a lot. Even on the days where little physical evidence of our productivity is evident, we may have spent it in thought, great conversations, precious family time, be inspired by a great book or movie, or just hung out with friends.
2021 may well be just as frustrating as 2020. We may still be separated from loved ones and confined in our homes but there are measures beyond the frustration that can help us see the joys and blessings that a day, a month, a year, a life can bring.
I’m going slowly and gently, not taking anything for granted or laying expectations on myself. I’m going to keep working on those creative hours, I’m going to seek adventure in my own backyard, I’m going to aim for a lot of +2 days, and I’m going to BE here.
What is the measure of your days? How are you going into 2021?
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