61. | Time management, habit tracking

In order to function properly in the new environment of the digital nomad lifestyle, I think I need to have certain skills and routines. For example, if there is no set time for working hours – there is no time to come in and no time to leave – then a kind of self-control is needed to ensure that the time spent working is actually spent working.

We have all had the opportunity to try this type of role in recent years. For example, I was away from work for many months during the COVID period. It is true that due to my working conditions I have often had the opportunity to work from home before.

Remembering these experiences, I think I will have no problem with having to allocate the time needed to do my work.

What is the problem with time?

We usually answer that there is not enough. Then they say that everyone has as much as the other person. And that everyone has time for what they want. I think these last two sentences are clichés and do not help anyone who has problems in these areas to progress at all.

The problem with time is because we have too much to do. Life throws a lot of things at us, and in addition, we voluntarily and willingly take on a lot of other tasks.

Personally, I belong to the group that takes on tasks. I can also say that my problem is not enough, I even do it for myself. However, a year ago, as a result of an inner realization, I changed this system and dropped a dozen things from my regular tasks that I voluntarily took on. This gave me quite a lot of time for other things. By other, I mean other, enjoyable activities. For many years, I have been making sure that I regularly have time for things that bring me joy. For me, this includes spending time with my family, children, partner, and friends. But hiking and cycling bring me just as much joy. Watching movies. Reading. Going to concerts. And I could go on and on. Activities that promise long-term results bring me joy. Learning to read runic script. Practicing playing a specific part of a song on the guitar. Learning to type with 10 fingers.

Habitual formation, following habits

Let me share a realization I had years ago. There is this dialogue in the movie Terminator Genisys:

• What do we want?
• Time travel.
• And when do we want?
• It’s irrelevant.

It was then that I realized something. I had tried to learn 10-finger typing several times over the previous 20 years. Without success. That’s when I understood why I hadn’t succeeded. Whenever I started this task, I focused only on the result. To get it over with as soon as possible so that the next task could come. That’s why I gave this task more time than I could. I thought that a lot of practice would quickly bring results. But that’s not what happened. A lot of practice – done at the wrong time and with the wrong energy support – quickly burned me out and I stopped practicing. I never got very far.

The dialogue in the movie came when I was thinking about the above problem. I realized that 10-finger typing is not an immediate goal for me. It really doesn’t matter when I learn it. It could be six months, or even three years. It hits me that even if I only spent 5 minutes a day on this thing, I would eventually get it done. When do I want it to be? It doesn’t matter.

It was during this time that I started to do certain things on a daily and weekly basis. These tasks became part of my daily to-do list and I kept a habit tracker every day for 219 weeks (4.25 years). This habit-building system resulted in 219 such charts.

This worked well for a while, but after a while there were so many routine tasks and times that I spent on it that I overshot the mark.

I stopped this system last year and started to organize my time differently. Along other priorities.

However, I was able to use what I had experienced in these 4.25 years of work in the past months. For example, I was able to start writing this blog quite easily. I know how to find time for what I want to do and I know how to make the activity regular.

It is a very big achievement for me that I have been meditating daily for 5 weeks. I have never managed to turn this into a habit before, but 5 weeks ago I simply started and have been doing it ever since.

This knowledge will definitely come in handy in my digital nomad life.

My current days

I have overcommitted myself in the last few weeks, but this was a conscious decision on my part. Now I am doing more things that I would definitely not do otherwise, but now for the sake of the goal I have consciously agreed to do a little more. Like in the good old days.

On Monday after work I drive to Budapest for the autogenic training. I get home after ten o’clock that day. On Tuesday for the past 5 weeks, the Writing and Self-Awareness course was over, this week is over. On these days, I had just a little time to rest after work, and then the two-hour course ended at eight o’clock in the evening.

On Wednesday I am experiencing the Tuesdays of previous years. For a few years now, one of my very good friends and I have been spending almost every Tuesday afternoon together. Typically, doing some kind of physical activity. Fitness, walking, archery, cycling, sauna and swimming are the most common. Because of the writing course, we have not met on Tuesdays in recent weeks, but on Wednesdays. This day also lasts until eight or nine in the evening. One week we meet in his city, the other week in my place.

I’ve been going to the gym again for five weeks. Plus, now with my younger brother, which makes this activity a much better experience than it was before. If we can, we go three times a week. Well, Thursdays run out sooner this way, and it’s not ideal that the three workouts are left for the second half of the week. Starting next week, the first weekly workout can be on Tuesdays.

Every two weeks, on Fridays, I go to Pomáz to learn TRE relaxation. It’s a 2-hour drive there and the same back, so these Fridays are 75% done by the time I get home.

At the end of July and the beginning of August, I also paid for a Buteyko breathing technique course – also with my younger brother. In addition, I have every weekend booked in April, and a Nomad Cruise in June… I won’t continue. Life is beautiful and I still want to get a lot out of it. The price for this is my time. But I’m happy to pay.

To put it bluntly, I’ve had less time in recent weeks than in previous weeks. That’s why it’s harder to keep my goal of writing at least three posts a week. Of course, if I didn’t manage to keep this goal, I would be friends with that now too.

Fortunately, the number of topics I have dreamed up for myself is not decreasing, and besides this post, I currently have 10 titles written on my list. I will be reporting on these soon and continuously.