Nearly every day I make a fairly detailed list of what I want to get done accompanied by time frames: IE 11:30-1:00 clean shed, gather fallen branches, write - or whatever the case may be. I assume most people do this. Does everybody do this? If I'm very busy or on vacation or something I won't, and the day takes on a shape of its own like an improvised music piece. Are those better days? More naturally lived ones? Maybe. I usually stray pretty far from my schedule - sometimes wildly so as I notice if I happen to look back at a day's schedule after it's passed. (Did I really think I would read for two solid hours after going for a run, raking the leaves, and sweeping every floor in the house?) Apparently my list-making self thought so. It has much more confidence in me than I usually do. It's optimistic, organized, and has no time to waste. Unlike my real self, which veers from productivity to idleness like a shopping cart with a broken wheel and has to be righted constantly. - 'Listen to Miles Davis and stare out the window at the backyard sparrows with no thought in particular in your head' never makes my lists but is a necessary part of the day that finds its way into the seams of my tasks. But this seems as it should be. Maybe because of my upbringing I've internalised the authority figure in my head and it stands above me providing a framework that I aim to stay within even if there's no one to punish me if I stray too far outside it, except that ultimate authority figure - my conscience.