Casual commitments happen when something is good to have, not a must-have. We feel that it’s a must-have but still, we are not committed. A must-have is non-negotiable. The day can’t end without that happening. So, we can’t have too many must-haves.
For me, one must-have I have daily is my daily blog. Second is the writing hour, which is becoming a part of my day. It is simply a thing that I do. I think almost everything else is a good-to-have wanting to be a must-have.
Good-to-haves are good. They create guilt when we treat them like must-haves.
Yes, I want to play the guitar, start learning ruby on rails, read Ghalib, record a podcast daily, record a video daily, work out, practice dance, meditate twice a day, read for an hour, do the akimbo lessons, eat healthily.
Yes, I want to do them daily, but they are not must-haves. They can’t all be must-haves. And there is no point having them as must-haves in my mind. I have to think in terms of appetite. How many hours am willing to allocate to these activities?
Getting anything done takes time, energy, and attention. And we have limited amounts of them. So, we can’t just freely commit them to random tasks. That’s like using a credit card mindlessly to make purchases you don’t need and can’t afford. It makes sense to spend some time selecting things that you want to commit to.
There has to be a process to this. Even, rather especially, for personal tasks and hobbies. Because when it comes to work, somehow, we can be more mindful. But in terms of our personal time, we tend to be more mindless.
