In my original post I included more details about item #4, exercise, because my running workouts were invariably followed by the same set routines including showering, shaving, and facial skin care. I decided while proofreading that these details did not fit the purpose of the original post because they were not priorities in the sense I intended to convey – I was never setting my alarm to shave. Rather, they were more like consequences of my exercise priority since exercise forced me to shower, showers led me to shave, and shaving initiated my skin care routine. Including these details, I feared, would open the proverbial can of worms regarding every tiny task that I prioritized in a literal sense yet would overwhelm the spirit of the post.
It's a priority, for example, for me to put on pants every time I leave the apartment. This is due to reasons related to laws, customs, and personal preferences. It is also a priority for me to use the restroom as required to answer nature’s call. But to rank ‘wearing pants’ or ‘using the restroom’ as priorities ahead of social time would force a pointless expansion of my list to include such vital trivialities like breathing, holding doors, and not crashing into stationary objects. These are ‘priorities’ in the sense that I will prioritize a trip to the restroom ahead of all other consideration in order to avoid peeing in my pants (assuming I wore pants, of course) but it fails to account for the spirit of my priority list – it’s about the value of my time rather than the exact rank order of the way I’ll use it.
I suppose the lesson of this digression is that my priority list isn’t a way to make choices for what to do in the next minute. Rather, it's a two-pronged approach to large blocks of time: the priority list helps me organize how I use the largest open blocks in my schedule and it helps me increase the amount of time I have in those blocks. Although we all have a seemingly endless twenty-four hours available each day, the time can disappear quickly when I’m undisciplined with my priorities. This is the main lesson of Daily Rituals – routines matter because they are the main tool at our disposal for ensuring our time goes to where we assign it its highest value. For me, the way I setup my priority list is the way I assign, apply, and regenerate that value.
