Rengineering One's Life

The act of blogging has to come easily--almost like firing off a casual email to a friend--for one to blog consistently. It shouldn't be a chore, at least for blogs such as mine which are simply personal musings and harbours no further aspirations beyond that.

When I was working in Indonesia, I blogged daily because I had a fairly regimented routine. I would leave work to take a taxi down Sudirman and Thamrin, alighting near the Hard Rock Cafe before dropping by at my favourite cybercafe. Internet connection, let alone broadband was not so easy to find then. It was there at the cybercafe (5000 rupiah for an hour of access), that I made wrote most of my blog entries. It was a beautiful period in my life.

Blogging has not been a routine of mine since I came back to KL, more than a decade ago. I did blog but mostly on special occasions. The greatest obstacle to me blogging here, back in my homeland is the absence of a simple, solitary lifestyle, which I had enjoyed in Jakarta, one which permitted the Muse to work its magic on me.

There's less time to reflect here in this hectic city of KL. Always, there are chores and responsibilities that occupy my after-work hours. And work itself for the past decade has an intense and exhilarating struggle of self-imposed challenge. That period of titanic struggle, I'm happy to say, has eased a little, but still my regular work occupies a greater part of my waking hours.

How did I find the time blog today? Ah, this is actually a small experiment I'm trying to conduct on myself. You see, I am always trying re-engineer my life for greater productivity and effectiveness. For an activity to become part of one's routine, it has to be almost an unconscious habit. I want to find those bits and pieces of time that get lost in between the large chunks of activities that occupy one's waking hours. Most of us are short of time, but at the same time we also waste a lot of it by not planning our daily routine well.

For example, being stuck in traffic is one of the biggest time wasters here in KL. But I've turned it into one of my most productive periods by listening to audiobooks.(I've written a couple of blog posts on this). The other thing I notice nowadays is that we waste too much of our time surfing the Net or texting on our smartphones. These activities are like time vacuum-cleaners--they will just suck up all bits and pieces of time. Why not spend less time on that and read a book or blog instead?

Reading is something that I still do very regularly. It is a habit that has never left me every since I was a child. Without reading, I suppose I would not consider myself to be living. Books are the intellectual fuel of my life. Reading anchors my day--first thing in the morning and last thing at night. And every other bits and pieces of time I can sneak in a book during the day is a welcome bonus.

I've also found a slot for exercise--jogging--in my busy schedule. I run at a nearby park on weekends. This activity has been successfully integrated into my life. The key to integration is simplicity. There should not be too many obstacles for one to perform the activity. Running is an easy form of exercise because you do not need a membership to a gym or fancy equipment to perform it. Wear your running shoes and off you go. Once or twice a week is good enough.

Vegetarian Mondays is another activity that I've successfully integrated into my life. I go meatless at least one day a week--if for some reason it is not convenient on Monday, I'll try to meet my quota on the following day. I do not need to be over-ambitious. Just being a vegetarian a day a week is good enough, for now. I've been practicing this successfully for probably 8 years now.

Meditation is another activity that I've successfully incorporated into my daily routine. This is an interesting topic, worthy of an article of itself.

And how do I propose to do that for blogging? Once a week is good enough for now. I won't be too ambitious. No lofty topics--just simple musings like this post. You need to find that golden hour somewhere within a particular day in a week. Today is the day. Now is the hour!

So I've successfully done it at least for this week. Let's see if this is sustainable. I'm an engineer. To consciously engineer one's own life is the greatest challenge one can embark upon for it potentially can also yield the greatest reward.