structure

In my experience, the more simple and unstructured my life is, the more complex it becomes. This was a strange paradox I noticed on the PCT. Not much to do most days except walk, eat, and find a place to take a shit. Yet my mind was completely free to wander wherever it liked, and I had a lot of choice in how I wanted to structure my time.

Without detailed planning I am often faced with the question “what do I want to do next?”. I constantly evaluate what I am choosing to do and why. This helps me learn to be aware of my true desires. If my life is full of plans, structures, activities, so that every moment of my day is planned out, that actually simplifies the decision making process greatly as I go through the day. I just go along with the schedule like a treadmill and it’s predictable. This is not a bad thing, and I think planning is very useful for accomplishing specific goals. But sometimes I find it helpful to allow myself large chunks of time that are completely unscheduled.

I also realized that if I live my whole life according to plans that I've made for myself... at any given point in time, I will be doing what a previous version of myself thought was best. It doesn't leave much flexibility to say "right now, I need to do this thing that I just realized I need." When I leave open spaces in my schedule I'm giving my future self an opportunity to act on the wisdom of the present moment.