The Porpoise Driven Life
Two hugely successful phenomena of the past decade have been David Allen’s Getting Things Done and Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life. I have a lot to say about the Catholicity of these two trends (GTD is a sort of perpetual secular examen and The Purpose Driven Life is an entire cottage industry based on principles found in paragraph 1 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church), but I’ll have to put it on my @someday/maybe list for now. Today I want to focus on how I’ve jerry-rigged these two productivity tools to help me in TYIJF.
First, that’s not a typo in the title. I’m pun-tificating on purpose on purpose. Why? Because dolphins* are thought to be able to put half their brain into a sleep state and continue to function well with the other half. That’s an enviable quality to a neophyte early-riser whose early-rising doesn’t come easily. Second, I’ve found that the secret to entering into such a state when I lack energy in the wee hours is a good checklist.
I intend to elaborate on how I use checklists in later posts, but for now I’ll tell you what I tell my 5th-8th grade students every day: a dull pencil is better than a sharp mind.
When I lurch out of bed in the morning, I’m such a zombie that I’m lucky if I remember to wear my undergarb under my garb. My start-of-the-day checklist ensures that I don’t forget any of the promises I’ve made to myself (e.g. daily prayer, weight tracking) and can be performed by a morning half-wit like me. Here’s the list:
- Roll out
- Kneel down
- Tea Up
- Weigh in
- Write (about 30 minutes)
- Twosh (2-sh: SHower + SHave)
- Cof-feed
- Hit the road
I try to use the same technique at the end of the day:
- Take out trash
- Wash dishes
- Make lunch
- Prep breakfast
- Lay out clothes
- Perform examen (using another list I’ve made for myself)
- Jot down agenda for next day (based in part on my examen)
I have saved my lists in my smart phone and set reminders to go off at appropriate times. I also use my smart phone to help me pray. (Tech geeks, scan this for a really cool, one-stop prayer app for Catholics: http://mobilegabriel.com/SincerePrayerApp/SincerePrayerOnMG.jpg)
Write down a pre-flight checklist for yourself and see if it’s helpful.
Please pray for me! Peace!
*I know that porpoises are different from dolphins, but “The Dolphin Driven Life” isn’t funny.
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This resonates with me very much. I am not an early riser and rely on lists (and the lists created from footnotes of my master list) to get things done, even when my brain is functioning at 100% [of the 10% capacity we supposedly use].
I will keep you in my prayers — and please pray for me as I attempt to make First Friday devotions at 6:30am…. starting next month…. I promise!
Put on that list: pray for my Hanson Goddaughter…she’s on a list of her own lately. And it’s not the “It List” but it does rhyme with that list. The mind of her own needs conforming by the Holy Spirit. xo
Rob, Does your smart phone have a dolphin cacophony alarm setting? That would be the perfect way to rise for the porpoise driven life.
Was that a typo (“Cof-feed”) or a reference to the alternative breakfast drink–Battery Coffeed?
See: http://www.batterydrink.com/products/coffeed .
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