I’ve just recently taken on a contract project. Adding that project onto my wheelchair and protein detector projects is a fun exercise in multi-threading that contributed to a recent realization.

After graduating and moving out to the Bay Area, I found myself missing the soft structure imposed by university. Two weeks ago, I finally developed an improved soft structure (independent from academia) to govern my time-expenditure.

It’s exciting to find a routine that works for me in an environment with many more degrees of freedom than I am accustomed to!

The schedule I’ve found is approximately:

08-09 Wake (Coffee)
09-10 Stretch, read papers, and sort todos 
10-11 Check email
11-12 Ab workout/Jog
12-18 Research
18-20 Climb/Bike
20-22 Blog/Research/Draw
22-24 Socialize and reflect on day (lessons learned, significant events and time allotment)

The lovely thing about this schedule is that I have no issue adjusting the time frames to suit my priorities that day. Life is a dynamic environment, but I’ve found most of my days fall into (at least) a permutation of this pattern. Having this structure to reflect on and shape my choices has noticeably increased my productivity and focus.

I hope you have a similar flexible schedule! It is a beautiful feeling to find routine in freedom.