Intentionality | Q3 Mindset
Each day begins with the heaviness & pressure of impending responsibility like a weighted blanket in the dead of winter. After snoozing my alarm a dozen or so times, I rise to my feet and make the bed - smoothing every square inch & fluffing pillows - to restore order in preparation of a long day’s toil. They forget that my office/podcast studio is also my bedroom, and that feng shui atmosphere doesn’t curate itself. Sauntering slowly into the kitchen to brew up some of Satan’s beans, reality sets in to the tune of Slack notifications. I’ve not even begun my day, and yet, it feels I’ve lived a lifetime.
To drown out the cacophony of that maddening digital chalkboard, I throw on a podcast to study the latest KD trade-rumors or indulge in pure conversational anger of a Bostonian degenerate lamenting another NCAAFB conference alignment. Though there is plenty of content to consume, it’s as if this demon’s hunger has no limits. Mixing a podcast in with the white noise of an adjacent construction site, Ben’s rooftop deadlifts, and constant “pings'' all while attempting to do my job has led me down a path of failure time and time again. Not to mention, my burning desire to grow Tough To Say, but feeling unequipped to split time amongst such massive pillars in my life. It got me thinking, “how much time is squandered when the mind is forced into the Monaco Grand Prix?” Could time be better leveraged or optimized with a clearer road map?
That thinking inspired me to follow the white rabbit & take inventory of my day-to-day operations. When I arbitrarily throw on music or a podcast, am I actively listening? When I’m on a call, am I focused? When I look at my phone, is it purposeful? All received a big fat NO on the Fuck-O-Meter (measured in fucks per second) which alerted me that something had to give. To get to the ‘next level’, I have to be more intentional with my time, energy, and thought. Without intentionality, we are rudderless in the sea of productivity.
Thus, the Q3 mindset was born. In an effort to properly disseminate my time amongst categories that deserve proper attention, I had to distill my actions, desires, and responsibilities into line items. Like, what do I ACTUALLY need to do on a Tuesday in July? If I wake up earlier and get a workout out of the way, could I free up my immediate evening after work to write an article like this one or prep notes for the next episode? Maybe prospect new opportunities? Work aside, could I leverage that golden hour to see a friend or shawty? My hope is that gone are the days of leaning so hard into spontaneity that I have no plan for the next 8 hours. Like Jnaj mentioned in EP100, time is the ultimate currency.
After bucketing my time, I had to pinpoint the final boss: the leading obstruction to an efficient day. Furthermore, deeply understanding how that obstruction has become a debilitating habit. For me it was simple because I get yet another notification about it every week… screentime, the phone, the interwebs. I half-ass read this GenZ Screentime Report and the results were staggering. I’m right there alongside the national average… nearly 7 hours a day on a black mirror. I default to my phone whenever I feel an ounce of boredom or impatience. It has become a crutch, and without checks and balances, the habit grew to a learned behavior. I’m working to change my relationship with my phone, and while that’ll be somewhat Sisyphean at first, the intention is there, therefore I can combat this demon head on.
Final layer deeper (but hey, continue to mine ore if you’re killing time), when you find yourself in curated moments as a result of hard work - let’s say a vacation or long weekend as it is summertime - how present are you? I, for one, would like to be far more intentional with the time I spend with my people. For instance, as I watched School of Rock a billion times as a youth, my niece has watched Soul a million and a half. Joe, Soul’s main character and drip lord, must die a horrible death to confront his life’s shortcomings and reincarnate as a tabby cat before seance-ing his way back into reality via roadside sign spinner… Anyways, Joe learns from his journey fighting 2D Disclosure-cover art phantoms that the time he spent was taken for granted and he never considered anyone else’s interest as a result of being blind to anything not jazz. Lofty parallel, but we have our passions that make everyone else’s passions seem lesser, and in turn, you become disconnected. It’s as if we can’t step outside our own echo chamber to relish a conversation. Once Joe is brought back to life to recollect his runes in this alternate Bloodborne universe, he drops that final line on how he’ll live his life: “I don’t know, but I’m gonna live every minute of it.”
In conclusion, if you worship Miles Davis, you too can become a feline before getting a second shot at life once you die. But for real, work on being more intentional with your time & actions this quarter. We’ll check in for the fall.