This is the most challenging of them all. Personally, winding down has been an issue. The unwillingness of the mind to calm coupled with the plethora of stimulus that is available these days makes this a very difficult activity. There have been attempts in the past where I created a routine consisting of key tasks including taking a warm shower, reading, drinking warm milk, reflection meditation, prayer. The reason that I feel that these failed were that it was only about me. Also, the routine had too many "to-dos" and there were dependencies - mostly getting in to other people's workflow. The other big reason, to slip, was my loved ones were kept out of this routine. This caused a combination of guilt and the constant unstructured demand on my time resulting in frustration and eventually stopping the pursuit. This time the shutdown routine -version 1.0 will be simple - 3 steps only : - Tucking away my son - Spending time with my wife with a warm drink - Reading T
The inspiration comes from listening to Tim Ferris and my ongoing attempt to transform. In the past, in my numerous attempts to make sweeping positive changes, I've had only moderate success. The key ingredient for the lower quality of the results was the very high quality of expectations. The resulting effort to improve the quality required dedication of time, passion and mindfulness which were not always available in the desired quantities. This always resulted in breaking the routine multiple times after which the pursuit itself was always diluted and gradually forgotten. This newer experiment consists of setting up routines for startup, shutdown and monitoring. This space will be a journal to reflect on the "low quality" but easy to follow and adhere routines.