Architecting your day

Starting the 10x10 experiment / Issue 1,435

Oh, hi friends!

Seems like my little 10x10 experiment, which I outlined yesterday, is the correct container for my days at the moment. 

(She says this after exactly one day of experimenting, wow…)

But here’s how yesterday shook out in my goal to “add up to 10.”

• Wrote three pages. Kris and I are working on a song for our musical, and instead of diving into rewriting lyrics, I wanted to discover more about the character without the gift and curse of rhymes, so I wrote a domestic scene of the character at home. Now I know more about his relationship, life, and routines — which will ultimately make revising the song easier.

• Read the book Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays for 30 minutes. Colin checked this out from the library a few months ago; it’s a slim volume, so slim I brought it to Ireland (but didn’t even open it lol). Discovered some gems in the first 30 pages that will help me with structure. (Question I’m asking: What are the dominoes that fall for each character?)

• Beautiful in New York right now so in the late afternoon I ran the big loop around Central Park, which is six miles.

• Finished the day with 30 minutes of reading The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide, which I bought at the Chester Beatty museum gift shop in Dublin because I was missing our cat, Lula! A gentle lullaby of a book.

I had other priorities and obligations yesterday, but could slot in these three things in because they were a) structured b) clear and c) added up to a larger daily goal.

Don’t worry, I won’t be so tedious with spelling out my every waking moment, but…I can already tell this kind of structure provides just enough stability and flexibility.

I’m not tied to an order of operations. And it doesn’t feel like slogging through an exacting “routine.” 

It’s also a reminder that, again, what we do can be — often should be — fun.

Filled with sparks and waves.

I have choices — we all have choices. 

Does that speak to you?

Here’s a link template if you’d like to make your own 10x10 experiment (or add up to any number you’d like!).

Copy it to your own Google Drive, print it, or make something beautiful that feels encouraging to you.

Or be a rebel and resist anything that smells like homework…staying true to yourself is welcome here!