Living Life Spontaneously

All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous, unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.

Henry Miller

The Word Spontaneous means performing or occurring as a result of a sudden impulse or inclination and without premeditation or external stimulus. It also means having an open, natural, and uninhibited manner.

Whenever we happen to surf on productivity on the internet we stumble upon the two commonest things – SCHEDULING and TO DO Lists. The world of productivity is full of making schedules and making lists especially the so called To do List. Then there happens to be different lists – Someday / May be, Errands List, Daily, Weekly and Monthly To do Lists. There are multiple apps for the same and analogs methods also like Strike Thru, Bullet Journalling, List Journalling, etc.

We have often stumbled upon stuff like where there is Micro scheduling of every 5 min as done by CEO’s of great companies like Elon Musk. And then when we follow this tactics we pursue it for few days to weeks to finally months – until in the end we just give up. This is why most of us start all full fledged with Bullet Journal and then eventually give it up. This is common phenomenon of what is known as Productivity Porn. It means over analysing things and planning without actually getting stuff done.

We spend hours planning our weeks and months only to find that when time comes to do the real thing – we just don’t have the desire to do it or feel like not doing it. Its like –

Man Proposes, God Disposes

Edwin Landseer

Its like you decide the life of your future self by the present conditions and when the every own future self tends to be the preset self – personal energy levels may have changed, desires may have changed and even circumstances may have changed and that something which was planned days back might not have the same relevance at this moment. So, ultimately we end up wasting time planning and finally we build double guilt over the fact that we haven’t stuck to our schedules or personal commitments.

Schedules might be absolutely unpredictable when you have a life that’s full off ups and downs. In my opinion, scheduling is only perfect when you have two or more people to meet up and discuss something. For self alone, scheduling can and should only be done grossly or even better not done.

To do’s List do give you sense of things to do. But again you become mechanical machine just checking things off your list. Is that the only purpose of life ? Checking things off lists ? It is often counteracted with things like it acts as dump and empties your brain – true ! But what about the divine realisation that you have so much on your list to get done – and can add to your list of anxieties and guilts when you have loads of untouched and unfinished tasks.

Try Living Spontaneously for a day – choose a Sunday or a weekend. It’s good to have a guide post of what you want to do. But let the mood, inner instinct decide what you actually want to do. just make sure – you are doing something productive – and that’s it. Even if it is non – productivity put it in category of entertaining self. At the end – see how much you have done – you will be amazed, free of any guilt of left overs or worries about future not done tasks. And above all a happy satisfied state of mind.

Say, its a Sunday morning – I wake up – no plans and schedule. I have my coffee, read newspaper then I see my nails have overgrown – ok lets cut the nails. As I throw my cut nails in the bin I happen to stumble over my plants and see that the soil is dry. Let’s water the plants. Once I water the plants – I see few pots are broken. Ok, Let’s replace the pots. Once I am done I wash my hands. Oh it’s 11 am. On a conventional day – you would actually struggle to get from 8 am to 11 pm and also waste time over writing lists and scheduling – not to mention tasks that desire attention.

Let your instincts guide you to what needs to be done and have a larger picture of what you desire to get done and way will be made. The next action is often guided by your instincts based on feedback of current work. Its’ like Chain Smoking. One event triggers the next one. Same goes with work – start with what you want – even if its small – and then let the instincts take over and chain smoke your projects.You will be amazed as how much you attain at the end of the day and how fully you have lived life.

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