Why I Use No Agenda

For plenty of things, I love not depending on tools.
Or rely as less as possible on external gimmicks.

Time being our most valuable asset, I like knowing exactly what I do with it.

Managing the precious asset that time is is something that I think should be done solely by ourselves and ourselves only. Regarding how crucial it is, I am convinced that it deserves a special care.

And this post is sort of my ode to time. To my time.

You'll learn how I treat it and how it reflects in my daily actions.

Owning my time

When I know I need to have an appointment, or that a meeting needs to take place, I never surrend to my agenda to look up for when I have time for this.

I just ... already know it.
I know my time, and I know it by heart.

I don't surrend to my agenda because, I don't have such a thing.

Adjusting my time to fill in some in-person interaction with someone at some point in the coming days?

Of course I know exactly when this can happen.
I know this because I own my time. Not an agenda nor a notebook.

It's clearly a form of freedom to me.

My freedom should always be with me.
I don't see myself locking (the gist of) it with ink on pages or such. I want myself and myself only to be aware of when I want and can share my time.

I can hear you.

"How come you never forget any meeting?"

I have two solutions to this.

Valuing in-person interactions

No matter who I meet, I tell myself that it is of great importance.

I tell myself that meeting another human being is something that do deserve a lot of attention as it means that someone else on this earth decided to share his or her most valuable asset with me.

This is important!

No matter the topic or goal of the meeting, it's important!

It may sound strange but believing that in-person interactions are an exchange of the highest form of value two person have really makes me think that it indeed is that important.

Personal interactions are what building us as humans so I efforce myself to think that even though I may be used to this form of interactions, every single one that happened or will take place is of paramount importance.

Also, we never know what can emerge from it.

So we better be prepared and pay close attention. Every, single, time.

Not planning more than 2 weeks ahead

I spare my brain with excessive thinking and planning.

We know that our short-term memory is limited and that on average we are able to remember around 5 to 7 items before we start messing up with what we're trying to remember.

Ironically, this range happens to correspond to the number of days a week has. As if it was made to be "used" this way.

So I set myself a rule:

Put no more than 5 to 7 meetings or appointments in the coming weeks.
In the next 2 weeks exactly!

Don't ask me why, I simply tried this number and it worked well for me so I sticked to it. 😄

Training myself to hold this chunk of data in my mind instead of relying on an agenda makes me feel like I'm improving my memory over time.

Also, it's quicker for me to know "what's next".
The vast majority of people asks their external physical (be it digital or not) device to remember it.

In my case, I only need me and the span of a second to actually know where I should be heading to.

In a sense, it makes me feel as if I had more control over my life.
Knowing, by myself, where I should be heading to, and when.