We spend a lot of time and energy thinking about what to do with our time and who to spend it with?

And, while you can’t control all variables, all things being equal, if you were able to stick to a set of “defaults” that guided your life, how much easier would managing your time become?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I talk about the importance of setting your default.

Download the PDF Transcription

Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Intentionally planning how you want to live

00:31 – You can’t live by your plan 100% of the time

00:58 – Why set “defaults” for yourself?

01:33 – Where’s the fun in defaults?

02:15 – Easy decisions versus hard decisions

04:12 – What does a default look like, and how do I create one?

05:21 – Creating contingency defaults

06:06 – Please question your defaults

Transcription:

Planning can require a great deal of time and effort.

But I believe it’s worth every minute you spend on it, because if you don’t plan how you’re going to live, you may never get to where you want to go in life. It’s like setting out on a journey with no specific end in mind. You will get somewhere, but is that somewhere a place you want to be?

I don’t know if it’s possible to live by your plan 100% of the time. Life is full of surprises, and the unexpected can happen. Just when you think you’ve got the hang of things, your plans can be derailed by people, events, and circumstances.

But if you have an agenda to fall back on, you can always get back on track. Maybe not the same day, maybe not even the same week, but usually within a short amount of time, you’ll find yourself back in your routine.

I believe an important part of creating your routine is setting your defaults.

Why Set Defaults for Yourself?

By setting your defaults, you can eliminate a lot of unnecessary thinking and conserve your energy for the things that matter to you most.

Steve Jobs was said to have worn the same clothing every single day, so that he wouldn’t have to go through his closet trying to figure out what to wear in the morning. He saved his energy for what he felt was most important in his life.

Since we all have limited willpower that diminishes through the day, using up that willpower for the minute details of life can steal energy and creativity that could be better applied to your highest priorities and projects.

Where’s the Fun in Defaults?

I can hear some of you objecting already: “If I set defaults for every part of my life, I will never have any fun!”

I know exactly where you’re coming from. I enjoy being spontaneous, and I have a lot of fun when others involve me in their spontaneity too.

But therein lies one of the benefits of setting defaults for yourself – you’ll probably eliminate a lot of boredom!

If you’re the fun-loving, spontaneous type, there’s a good chance you find yourself bored a lot of the time anyway. So, think about it – if you always had something new and different scheduled in your calendar, you would have a lot to look forward to, and you wouldn’t get bored or restless as often.

Plus, you can schedule spontaneity blocks into your life. There’s no rule against it!

Easy Decisions & Hard Decisions

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what to do on a given night. In the last six years or so, I often defaulted to work, because that was the easiest thing to do. I was already at work, so soldiering on and doing more work was an easy decision to make.

At that time, finding something to do, asking friends to join me, and going out was the harder decision to make, as weird as that might sound. And, that wasn’t part of my value system at the time.

The easy decision isn’t always the right one, though, especially long-term, as evidenced by the fact that I was severely burnt out before going on my trip to Japan. Yes, I did it to myself as much as anyone else,