Here I am – a new and very regular day is starting off. I wake up and do all the waking up basics including having breakfast. Pretty sure it can’t be called a morning routine, but it’s a multipotentialite / scanner morning and it’s been mine for some weeks now.
Just realized I haven’t yet described what a scanner or multipotentialite is. For the sake of brevity, you can find info here or just see this description:
A multipotentialite is someone with many interests and creative pursuits.
It stems from the word multipotentiality–a psychological and educational term used to describe people who display aptitudes across multiple disciplines.
Check Emily Wapnick’s TED talk here: https://youtu.be/4sZdcB6bjI8
I reach out to my Bluetooth headphones as soon as breakfast is ready and I seat outside eating , having coffee and listening to an audio book mystery / fantasy book. For some reason I’ve been into these books lately – I know there are no givens in what I feel like in a given time but I do believe it’s good to listen to whatever my mind is asking to – so mystery it is!
After eating, my mind starts wondering and planning for the day, but this is no regular planning session (or structured, even). One of the things I love about working remotely is that I can blend different interests and hobbies throughout the day:
- I’ll strive to doing my exercise before lunch – since I got my Switch RingFit exercise went from a daunting thing to a fun one
- I scroll throw Pinterest to decide what projects I can take on with the latest yarn order I just made – I want to both start a new Crochet MAL (Make ALong) that just came out (hence the order) and finally use one of the colored yarns I got. But.. I have SO MUCH yarn already that i should find a way to also use the yarn I have got. I scroll down to see amazing projects, gather ideas, save some in my boards. For curiosity, I decided to work on the MAL with Neon and strong colors, as shown below. Might be horrible, but might also be something great (what I am shooting for):
- My mind starts to wander again: will I have time to play with my Ukulele for a bit later today? Maybe after dinner…..
- Then there’s the book that just arrived yesterday “The Pragmatic Programmer“: I started reading it yesterday evening before going to bed and it was interesting enough that I am thinking about it now. It’s work, but definitely sounded like an interesting read that i should make time for
- I go inside for a bit and my eyes fall on a house project I am working on. I look to the house plant and start imagining all the things that we could do there, the sort of materials we could use, and again browsing for ideas adding them to the correct Pinterest board
An hour went by, I gave my mind time to travel enough that I can now head into the office and focus on my work. I love my work!!!! It’s specific enough that I know what and when I need to deliver while being lose enough that I can organize my time as it fits me best. This week I am focusing on gathering information to deliver a training on CSS Grid. At the same time am working on improving some E2E tests. Having both these tasks allows me to choose where to focus.
Part of me knows that the multipotentialite morning madness described could be more productive: I could include meditation ,yoga, walking, exercise, writing. I want to include them all! But I know myself well enough not to force these on – things that work for others don’t necessarily work for me and for the time being this “routine” has worked well enough to prepare me for my day. I am also starting to feel that familiar unresting sensation that comes right before I decide to shake things up a bit, so am leaving things as are for now – they likely won’t be like this much longer 🙂
Briefly my mind goes back to when I worked in consulting on an office space. Thankful for my life at the moment I appreciate all the things that I am grateful for at my job: schedule freedom, working from the countryside, taking as many breaks as I need, having fewer and more effective meetings, working on my own space and allowing my multipotentialite nature to thrive while constantly being given challenges that keep me motivated.
It was a great morning so far and it’s only starting !