An Inquiry into Gaining Schedule Equilibrium

It is often the case that we end up becoming so involved with something that it becomes part of our lifestyle. And this particular thing becomes so engrained within us that to think ourselves without it would be absurd. This is because as humans, as part of life, we have a knack for adaptation. We adapt to things in such a way as to do things with the utmost of efficiency. It is a hinderance for survival if the mind and body have to do extra work. So we find ourselves getting "schedulized." We have a certain way of doing things at certain times.

Is there a problem with this fact? No. There is nothing wrong with keeping to a schedule. Some of the greatest things one can get out of life require a constant "chipping away," a constistency. Knowledge, Strength, Relationships; these things all require "putting in your time" so to speak and sometimes that means getting schedulized. It may mean setting a time out of the day to read a book, visit the gym, or call up a loved one. Schedulizing ourselves helps us to focus upon one task at a time. It allows us to be more productive in achieving our many goals.

Can schedulizing ourselves be bad, however? The sad fact is that it can. It can be very bad, just as it can be very good. If we become too schedulized, then we tend to not want to diverge from that path. Just doing something different for one thing seems to screw up the entire schedule, throwing us out of place. As a result, we are apt to less likely take risks, even if those risks are miniscule in nature. We are less likely to change our views on something even though there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and we are less likely to simply try anything new. There is one problem with becoming over-schedulized that is the main focus of this article, and that is failing to realize how ourself, as a person, may change in relation to the schedule.

It is no secret that over time people change. In fact, it's one of the simplest facts of life. It is how we change, whether good or bad, that we try to take control over. It is the case, however, that alot of the time our changes go unnoticed to even ourselves. Over a large span of time these changes may build on one another until we become almost entirely new people. The sad fact is that we don't realize it until something large happens to shake us from our foundation. Then we must make the treachorous journey of building ourself back up from scratch through self-comtemplation.

What does this have to do with becoming schedulized though? Well, the entire idea of a schedule and what a person is are polar opposites. A schedule is something that is solid, unchanging, and focused. A person, however, is entire different. People are constantly changing, thinking, and have a tendency to jump from one idea to the next. Looking at this point alone it is easy to deduce how becoming too schedulized could become a problem for us; it attempts to go against our very nature. But jumping further into the matter shows just how important this topic may be.

A person who has become over-schedulized may, over time, become blind to the fact that they are changing and as the changes snowball it may get to the point where the reasons that they kept to the schedule so tightly in the first place are completely gone. Their actions do not reflect their thought patterns. What results is a person whom is generally miserable. They are doing things they don't want to do in places they don't want to be. Their so stuck to a schedule that they don't know, or are too scared to know, anything different. The result? It either takes something extremely large to happen to break them away from the schedule or they continue on, constantly digging a deeper hole, constantly becoming more miserable.

This scenario is an extreme one, though. However, this tendency to become over-schedulized can happen at smaller levels as well. The cure? It may sound simple to say that all you need to do is switch up the schedule every once in a while, but this is too idealistic. Sometimes people just don't have a choice but to keep going to the same job doing the same things for a long time. It is important, though, to have a recognition of things we have a responsibility for and the things we can play with a little. For most, controlling what has to be done at work is merely a dream, but controlling our activities beyond that is completely within our power. The more schedulized your job is, the more variance you should try to incorporate within the rest of your life. This will help to keep an equilibrium between the two poles.

Keeping tabs on ourselves is perhaps even greater advice. It may seem strange to say something like that, but the truth is, we have a tendency as individuals to get caught up in the group. We may start something with a valiant reason, but as time goes on, find ourselves continiuing it for other reasons, reasons which perhaps go largely unnoticed. The key here is to never be so sure as to know yourself. We must always be willing to ask the important questions:
"Why am I doing this?"
"Does this fit with my goals?"
"What am I expecting from this?"
Asking ourselves this every once in a while may help to keep track of the things we find important. These questions will help us to pinpoint our values.

The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre believed that with re-thinking our role within the world anguish was brought in as well. This is because it came with it a realization that we have a freedom to choose our role, that it is not given to us at birth. This, which became known as "radical freedom" is one the tenets of the school of Existentialist thought.

Whatever the case, this "anguish" that is experienced becomes good in a sense that it motivates us to make sense of ourselves. Without it, one day we may come to the realization that our values don't fit our actions and that we are too afraid to do anything about it.

Overall, it is important to find a middle ground from becoming too schedulized or too fickle. If we are too fickle our dreams will never come true because we won't have the consistency and focus needed to attain them. However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, if we are too set in stone with our schedule we will forget the reason we wanted to achieve that particular goal in the first place and may find ourselves searching for something we don't even care to find.