Post: #1

Today is my first day off after conclusion of my 3 month contract working in health care in an public institution with indigent people. I don't want to get into the details too much, but let's just say these are people who are not pleasant to be around. The management was OK, my boss was nice and the people above him your basic do-nothing-but-interfere dopes.

I saw all the full-time employees there, some very overweight, with nothing else in their minds but to keep going to work there until they're too old to do it anymore. I used to be baffled by them, now I appreciate the world couldn't run without them, people like me are the oddballs.

I saved up a good chunk of money that will enable me to take off for at least a year combined with my small passive income.

But today I am sitting here shell-shocked, I should be happy, but I had to switch into treadmill mode to survive.

Big thing I realized: When you ACT like a drone , you start to BECOME one and when you try to STOP acting, it takes time.

Before I went back to work at the job, I was doing creative things--writing, editing video, but I had run out of money to sit in Starbucks and finish things.

Now I have money, but I am burnt out and feel i have to regroup.

When you have to go back to the POD ( exhausting work setting) you don't just lose the time in the POD, you lose recovery time too.

On the plus side, I relearned how to put my nose to grindstone, when I feel better I want to start scheduling a little more, but not like a regular job.


IDEAS FOR TIME MANAGEMENT FOR THOSE WITH INDEPENDENT INCOME


So I have 1-2 years off guaranteed: After that, I might have to go back for a few months again.

HOW DO I MAXIMIZE MY PRODUCTIVITY WITH NO ONE WATCHING ME?

Years ago I decided to go for the 1-2 year time-off periods rather than save 'til I'm 70 and totally retire. Separate debate, if you are younger and want a big pile before you quit more power to you, I wasn't that smart and am on a different path.
I have this idea: Delineate three time periods that match your natural daily rhythms. You can do something if you want, or fuck it and rest or take a nap if you want.

I'll say for experiments' sake, given my own metabolism:

9 AM to 12 Noon : After breakfast and bathing, the most alert, highest Mental Period of the day. Do most difficult intellectual tasks here that don't require physical warmup. For instance, starting online accounts, learning new languages.

2:30PM to 7 PM Physical Endurance. Practicing musical instruments, athletic workouts, also doing repetitive tedious things like video editing that take lower mental acuity but are physically taxing.

8:30 to 12 midnight : Mystery period-- Jam sessions, prolonged sessions with girls, going to concerts, what ever you dream of. Most relaxed period because you know you did well in your earlier two productivity periods.

Any one else lucky enough to have FREE TIME ( the most valuable thing in the whole world after health) have any ideas how to get things done?

Post: #2

^ No time in your schedule for sex?

Post: #3

(01-16-2014 03:45 PM)el mechanico Wrote:  ^ No time in your schedule for sex?

That's addressed in the mystery period you horny Greek bastard.

But you raise a good point: because I've got a passive income+ savings these guidelines are just suggestions by me for me. to help me be more effective.

If my 19 year old Filipina is just discovering she loves long multiple orgasm sessions in the morning, that's a legitimate emergency that overrides work schedules .

I'm also realizing I need a separate office where I can seek shelter from the inevitable screaming Filipina babies.

Post: #4

(01-16-2014 03:45 PM)el mechanico Wrote:  ^ No time in your schedule for sex?

Aint nobody got time for that.

Post: #5

Sounds like me.

Have you tried doing your workout sessions in the AM? When I work out in the morning, my mental acuity is on FIRE for the entire day. It isn't until around 2:30ish that I get tired and want to take a nap.

Post: #6

Sex could also easily go into the physical endurance section.

Post: #7

IKE, the key thing to do during this period is to establish a consistent sleeping schedule and stick to it.

The best way to derail an unstructured period in your life is to let your sleeping schedule go, start staying up very late whenever you feel like it, etc. There is an early thrill to it because staying up late on a weeknight is like tasting the forbidden fruit after coming off a highly structured period when you had no choice. But before you know it you'll be feeling like shit, then drinking too much coffee to be up at all hours, and then go downhill from there.

So find a time you want to wake up in the morning and a time you want to go to bed at night (allowing yourself at least 7-8 hours of sleep), and stick to it day in day out, weekdays and weekends. Use your light box in the morning after you wake up.

If you do this one thing with absolute rigor, and in addition don't abuse things like alcohol and caffeine and make sure to get some exercise, you'll find this to be an enjoyable and productive period, and you'll find that a lot of the other scheduling quandaries take care of themselves.

Post: #8

(01-17-2014 02:21 PM)frenchie Wrote:  Sounds like me.

Have you tried doing your workout sessions in the AM? When I work out in the morning, my mental acuity is on FIRE for the entire day. It isn't until around 2:30ish that I get tired and want to take a nap.

For decades of bike riding ( my favorite sport) I've preferred late afternoon, even ending into the dark to be outside during the beautiful sunset period.

However, I am so fat twice a day workouts might be in order, and from a psych productivity POV you might be right.
But this morning I'm just starting my screenwriting period at 9 AM.

I'm nice and fresh because I wasn't busting ass making someone else rich the last few weekdays.

God I love being unemployed. Even if I did it the slow, stupid State worker way.

Post: #9

(01-16-2014 03:36 PM)iknowexactly Wrote:  Today is my first day off after conclusion of my 3 month contract working in health care in an public institution with indigent people. I don't want to get into the details too much, but let's just say these are people who are not pleasant to be around. The management was OK, my boss was nice and the people above him your basic do-nothing-but-interfere dopes.

I saw all the full-time employees there, some very overweight, with nothing else in their minds but to keep going to work there until they're too old to do it anymore. I used to be baffled by them, now I appreciate the world couldn't run without them, people like me are the oddballs.

I saved up a good chunk of money that will enable me to take off for at least a year combined with my small passive income.

But today I am sitting here shell-shocked, I should be happy, but I had to switch into treadmill mode to survive.

Big thing I realized: When you ACT like a drone , you start to BECOME one and when you try to STOP acting, it takes time.

Before I went back to work at the job, I was doing creative things--writing, editing video, but I had run out of money to sit in Starbucks and finish things.

Now I have money, but I am burnt out and feel i have to regroup.

When you have to go back to the POD ( exhausting work setting) you don't just lose the time in the POD, you lose recovery time too.

On the plus side, I relearned how to put my nose to grindstone, when I feel better I want to start scheduling a little more, but not like a regular job.


IDEAS FOR TIME MANAGEMENT FOR THOSE WITH INDEPENDENT INCOME


So I have 1-2 years off guaranteed: After that, I might have to go back for a few months again.

HOW DO I MAXIMIZE MY PRODUCTIVITY WITH NO ONE WATCHING ME?

Years ago I decided to go for the 1-2 year time-off periods rather than save 'til I'm 70 and totally retire. Separate debate, if you are younger and want a big pile before you quit more power to you, I wasn't that smart and am on a different path.
I have this idea: Delineate three time periods that match your natural daily rhythms. You can do something if you want, or fuck it and rest or take a nap if you want.

I'll say for experiments' sake, given my own metabolism:

9 AM to 12 Noon : After breakfast and bathing, the most alert, highest Mental Period of the day. Do most difficult intellectual tasks here that don't require physical warmup. For instance, starting online accounts, learning new languages.

2:30PM to 7 PM Physical Endurance. Practicing musical instruments, athletic workouts, also doing repetitive tedious things like video editing that take lower mental acuity but are physically taxing.

8:30 to 12 midnight : Mystery period-- Jam sessions, prolonged sessions with girls, going to concerts, what ever you dream of. Most relaxed period because you know you did well in your earlier two productivity periods.

Any one else lucky enough to have FREE TIME ( the most valuable thing in the whole world after health) have any ideas how to get things done?

Without asking you to get into the details too much since you said you'd prefer not to, what is your job generally I.K.E. ? Admin? Healthcare like nursing or similar ?

Post: #10

(01-18-2014 01:08 PM)The_CEO Wrote:  Without asking you to get into the details too much since you said you'd prefer not to, what is your job generally I.K.E. ? Admin? Healthcare like nursing or similar ?

Mainstream health care practitioner.

I had this revelation, you don't HAVE time, you ARE time. You do not exist apart from the finite number of seconds you exist.

Also, thanks for responding but you don't have to quote a 150 line post to ask a one question.

Post: #11

(01-18-2014 11:47 AM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  IKE, the key thing to do during this period is to establish a consistent sleeping schedule and stick to it.

I agree with this 95%, the only proviso is coffee is becoming more and more associated with lower Parkinsons, Alzheimer's , and colon cancer and I've read is the biggest source of anti-oxidants in most Americans' diets.

Post: #12

IKE,

The great thing to do with coffee is to ritualize it -- more pleasure in every sense -- and strictly keep it to one serving per day, in the AM and at least 12 hours before bed. That's enough to get plenty of benefit and very little adrenal fatigue.

Depressives, the anxious, etc, do poorly with caffeine unless it's regularized and strictly moderate, but they can benefit from it if done correctly.

Alcohol should be avoided in a natural depressive like yourself IKE -- I'd wager that you'd drop all the excess weight and all the excess introspection if you just eliminated alcohol completely for a year. And after that superb year, you would probably realize that at your age, the minimal benefits are easily outweighed by the serious, insidious depressive harms.

Just think of it -- all you have to do to have a completely revitalized life is: sleep and wake same time every day and use a light box to keep schedule entrained and mood high; eliminate alcohol; restrict and ritualize your coffee in the AM; and eat slightly smaller portions at each meal, while doing some enjoyable daily exercise.

None of the above is that difficult and the payoff is immense, ridiculous: a whole new life. You'll be talking about your body as POSSIBILITY rather than TIME. You will look at things with the fresh eyes of someone who has had the courage to flush his system of waste.

Post: #13

(01-18-2014 03:13 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  IKE,

Depressives, the anxious, etc, do poorly with caffeine unless it's regularized and strictly moderate, but they can benefit from it if done correctly.

Alcohol should be avoided in a natural depressive like yourself IKE --

Just think of it -- all you have to do to have a completely revitalized life is: sleep and wake same time every day and use a light box to keep schedule entrained and mood high; eliminate alcohol; restrict and ritualize your coffee in the AM; and eat slightly smaller portions at each meal, while doing some enjoyable daily exercise.

100% with you on alcohol. I'm only drinking pretty small amounts about once a month now for about the last year, and I clearly see how it worsens my mood even in small amounts, and have read similar things-- that one beer can really derail a depressive.

Many young men think of three beers as moderate and it's actually a LOT of alcohol in neurological terms: opinions don't have anything to do with it. I'd say the celebratory benefit of alcohol for me peaks at using once every three to six months.

I'm watching a long-time talented young friend stalling in his development and turning into an angry, depressed middle aged guy because he's laughing off the effects of alcohol and "building it in" to his life with the Sunday game bullshit, which is not really a game but a binge-drinking occasion.

Not to be argumentative, and you may know better than I do-- I am not a neurology researcher--but I remember reading Parkinson's prevention is dose-dependent and something about three cups of coffee.

This study is ambiguous on dose:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14607318

I can't type any more, I'm too eager to work!!!

Post: #14

IKE, I'm impressed by your devotion to your java. But there is no need to be a neurology researcher to know that the speculative long term effects of high dosage caffeine on Parkinson's and the like would be moot in comparison to the very real and very immediate effects it would have on your levels of anxiety and depression and on the quality of your sleep. So for anxious/depressive types such as yourself, one ritualized cup of coffee a day in the AM is where it's at...

Post: #15

OP, you are taking a year off because you were tired of the repetitive existence in a corporate job. But are you hoping to return to that job in 12 months? If not you better forget about all the cool hobbies you're dreaming of doing and make creating financial independence your one and only goal. Gym, music, languages, seeing girls etc should be no more than 10% of your day and night otherwise you'll wind up broke and in the same existence one year from now.

Post: #16

(01-19-2014 10:43 AM)ASOT Wrote:  OP, you are taking a year off because you were tired of the repetitive existence in a corporate job. But are you hoping to return to that job in 12 months? If not you better forget about all the cool hobbies you're dreaming of doing and make creating financial independence your one and only goal. Gym, music, languages, seeing girls etc should be no more than 10% of your day and night otherwise you'll wind up broke and in the same existence one year from now.

IKE, I have to agree with this. You shouldn't need much more monthly cashflow to permanently stay out of that job market.

Could you live off of 2 to 3k a month? If so, it sound like you're almost there.

Post: #17

IkE needs some Greek lightning to put him over the top. I suggest developing fibro maialgia and get on the disability wagon #instantretirement #pussyparadise

Post: #18

(01-19-2014 10:43 AM)ASOT Wrote:  make creating financial independence your one and only goal.

Hahah, yeah, sounds great. If I was 30. But I'm over 50, how do I know I'll be alive in 3, 5 7 years to enjoy this forward viewing money?

I can return to the POD one month a year and be a lazy, nap taking slut the rest of the time.

Best of all, I'm a lazy nap taking slut RIGHT NOW.

I take it all back. No fucking schedule AT ALL. One rule:

Rule 1: No fucking rules.

Optional rules to follow if and when I want:

1) Try to get to work by 9. If not, by 10.
2) Sleep as much as I want, whenever I fucking want.
3) When in doubt, do whatever the hell I want.
4)Practice pretending to agree with people who think I should do something like what they want to do.

Gee that's four.

Post: #19

(01-19-2014 11:25 AM)el mechanico Wrote:  IkE needs some Greek lightning to put him over the top. I suggest developing fibro maialgia and get on the disability wagon #instantretirement #pussyparadise

Isn't is spelled "poosyparadise"?

I'm taking El Mech's advice and trying to get the first baby out of the sway so I can start on my Impregnation Rampage.

Post: #20

(01-19-2014 11:22 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  [quote='ASOT' pid='631989' dateline='1390146206']
OP, you are taking a year off because you were tired of the repetitive existence in a corporate job.

Could you live off of 2 to 3k a month? If so, it sound like you're almost there.

Yes, I'll go back when they get the next contract ready. In fact I'm heartbroken-- heartbroken I tell you-- that I'm out of work for a couple months.

I'm at about 1400 passive income right now, I can increase passive income approx $50 per month/ per month while I work.

I'm rational, I assure you. Good times are coming.

Post: #21

(01-20-2014 03:19 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  Best of all, I'm a lazy nap taking slut RIGHT NOW.

I take it all back. No fucking schedule AT ALL. One rule:

Rule 1: No fucking rules.

Optional rules to follow if and when I want:

1) Try to get to work by 9. If not, by 10.
2) Sleep as much as I want, whenever I fucking want.
3) When in doubt, do whatever the hell I want.
4)Practice pretending to agree with people who think I should do something like what they want to do.

Gee that's four.

LOL, rarely has an observation been proven true so swiftly:

(01-18-2014 11:47 AM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  The best way to derail an unstructured period in your life is to let your sleeping schedule go, start staying up very late whenever you feel like it, etc. There is an early thrill to it because staying up late on a weeknight is like tasting the forbidden fruit after coming off a highly structured period when you had no choice. But before you know it you'll be feeling like shit, then drinking too much coffee to be up at all hours, and then go downhill from there.

Post: #22

(01-20-2014 04:10 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  

(01-20-2014 03:19 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  Rule 1: No fucking rules.

LOL, rarely has an observation been proven true so swiftly:

(01-18-2014 11:47 AM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  The best way to derail ....There is an early thrill to it .... But before you know it you'll be feeling like shit, then drinking too much coffee to be up at all hours, and then go downhill from there.

Hey, my producer told me my script was great, and I got it done by sleeping whenever I wanted, then feeling really guilty for not working hard and working hard.
My schedule went totally wacky as sober voices warned, but it worked so far.

Now to see how my "no rules" lifestyle progresses. By all moral standards, I agree I should be punished.

But creative tasks sometimes require some off approaches.

Post: #23

IKE, there are no moral standards involved here.

The human body is a mere piece of machinery that lets the mind go on with its business. If you attend to the dull but not overly onerous maintenance required to keep the machinery humming, change the oil on time and so on, you can with any luck preserve it in a reasonably hospitable state for the mind to enjoy its glorious and creative life. Otherwise, you suffer the consequences of trying to use a creaky and rusting rig, and you soon enough have little time left for the life of the mind.

He who affects to be entirely free of the body is destined to become its slave.

Post: #24

(01-20-2014 03:19 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

(01-19-2014 10:43 AM)ASOT Wrote:  make creating financial independence your one and only goal.

Hahah, yeah, sounds great. If I was 30. But I'm over 50, how do I know I'll be alive in 3, 5 7 years to enjoy this forward viewing money?

I can return to the POD one month a year and be a lazy, nap taking slut the rest of the time.

Best of all, I'm a lazy nap taking slut RIGHT NOW.

I take it all back. No fucking schedule AT ALL. One rule:

Rule 1: No fucking rules.

Optional rules to follow if and when I want:

1) Try to get to work by 9. If not, by 10.
2) Sleep as much as I want, whenever I fucking want.
3) When in doubt, do whatever the hell I want.
4)Practice pretending to agree with people who think I should do something like what they want to do.

Gee that's four.

I see, for some reason I assumed you were mid 20s having done your first stretch of work out of college. I have no idea you were 50+ with savings and $1600/month passive income. Based on that you seem to have your shit together already I'd be doing exactly as you plan do do, sweet fuck all. Enjoy.