Squared Eye Notebook

Enter the Dragon: The Old Man Schedule

I’m doing it. No more playing around. I’m manning up. I’m doing the old man schedule.

What is this strange schedule I speak of? Why would I just to be an old man? Well, its not just any old man we’re talking about here people. It’s Benjamin Franklin. I want to do what this ripe nose bespectacled old geezer did. I want to get up early. I want to go to bed early. I want to get more done in a day, and feel better at the end of it.

Here’s Franklin’s schedule:

This last weekend we threw Greenville Grok. A shorty conf for hobbits and other creatures who want to share ideas, ask questions, spark discussion, and get quick no-nonsense peer review within a simple constraint of 10 or 20 minute spots. More on that later, but for now, let me say that Grok is the place where I first heard about The Old Man Schedule. The culprit is Cameron Koczson, pronounced Co-Zahn, which sounds like the fierce name of a japanese samurai – which in some ways he is.

Cameron, who is already one of the most industrious people I know shared that he thought he could do better to be more intentional about his day. I feel the same, and we’re not alone.

Simply put, and in list form, my goal is to:

5:00am

Get up early enough to be awake before the distractions start. My first day started at 5:30am. I didn’t get done as much as I wanted, so today I started at 5:00am.
Be intentional about the period of waking. Decide what my time will be about the night before, so I can set about doing it immediately.
Do something that makes my body awesome. Situps, pushups, pretend I know Kung Fu.
Remember and write down the things I hold to be true, right, and good. Assert them over whatever wayward way I am feeling.
Read Scripture & Pray.
Write my ass off. Just write. Write whatever I can. Get it out. Don’t stop. Edit later, for now, just write. No really, don’t stop writing. If distractions come up, write them down in SimpleNote.
Journal what I did, and what I’m learning as I start The Old Man Schedule.

7:00

Slow down my mornings with my boys. See them. Don’t let them be a morning blur.
Assess the day ahead, resolve to give it the wushu finger hold.
Take the kids to school, ask them silly questions, or just enjoy being in the truck with them.

8:30am

Work steadily and with care. Tuning out distractions like Twitter and Email accept for specific moments designated for them during the day.

12:00pm

Have a restful lunch sans work. Play on my iPad or take a walk. Read an article or two. Schedule only 1 lunch/week a long lunch out. Two hours to relate to someone awesome.

1:00pm

Make the afternoon count. Have a post-lunch CoWork espresso and get focused.

4:45pm

Stop work in time to review the day, set it aside, and head home unburdened and ready to be a wild awesome husband, and super-powered, cape wearing, tender-loving papa.

9pm