Tick-Tock Blocks

I’ve written before of time and how I wish I could forget about it – a wish doomed, I fear, thanks to my own OCD-laden proclivities and the clockwork demands of my constant companion, Type One Diabetes, to remain just that, a wish. This doesn’t, however, mean that I can’t take steps to bring it somewhat closer to reality, if only in infinitesimal quantities.

To wit: instead of setting quit times (or start times for breakfast, et cetera), I now work to a timer. 90 minute blocks, three of them throughout the day: two in the morning, before my run, and one after lunch.

So far, it’s proving to be a tremendous – if still somewhat time-dependent – method of freeing my brain from the tick-tock of expectant clocking-in and clocking-out. While I still try to hew to a regular schedule, I’m less prone to anger if life does its thing: I can simply set a timer once life’s demands have been dealt with and get to work, whenever I need to – and, hopefully, divorce myself from the damaging, self-perpetuated myth that I’m useful to The Work only in the mornings.

Worth noting here that I gave the Pomodoro technique (something with a tomato and 25 minute clicky-timer chunks followed by short breaks and then a long break or whatever) and found it to be absolutely maddening.