In my thirty years to date, I’ve found I’ve consistently been drawn toward Minute-to-minute living, and away from planned living.

What is Minute-to-minute Living?

Minute-to-minute living is doing something as the desire or need arises, and stopping when it’s no longer needed. For example: I get hungry so I make myself food. I see my guitar and the mood strikes me to pick it up and play. I get tired so I have a nap.

What is Planned Living?

Planned living is doing something at a pre-defined time or date, either because it’s what a past version of you decided was best (E.g. going to the gym at 10am every morning), or because it requires the involvement or co-ordination of other people (E.g school).

My experience is that I have a much higher preference toward minute-to-minute living than the average person. I’ve been told this tendency is higher in people with ADHD, so my brain chemistry probably has something to do with it. One plausible explanation is that my preferences vary highly across time, so I can’t rely on past me to reliably know what future me will want to (or not want to) do, and future me has so frequently been burned by past me that I’ve now come to inherently distrust all plans made by past me.

I don't think this is down to any kind of intentionality. I didn’t decide one day that this was how I wanted to live, I just observed these preferences.

The Importance of Environment

The modern environment has limited our ability to live minute-by-minute. The range of potential activities is limited to those your environment enables. For example, when I was a kid, my daily routine was to leave my house and “Call for” my friends.

When I try to think about other spaces where you can find a similar "unplanned leisure" type experience today, I came up with: Boarding Schools, College dormitories, Holiday home villages, Hostels, Retirement communities, and Slums. It's unfortunate that modern life basically doesn't design for this at all.

The Million Dollar Question

Is it possible to design your life such that you live largely minute-by-minute, but still have the benefits of a more planned approach ? For example, how do you set yourself up so that eating well, exercising, and spending leisure time with friends & family happen organically? The first and second piece here are reasonably achievable, but the third point is difficult, because it requires physical proximity.