Hey friendos! I hope all of you are doing well. The holiday season can be cathartic and cozy, but stressful as well. Make sure not to forget about your own needs amidst all the family stuff and events.

How am I doing?

I’m still feeling great. Everything’s gravy. (I always wanted to say that.) I’m used to having spikes of depression, especially during winter times, but it seems my new lifestyle is doing wonders both for my mental and physical health.

It’s funny. I don’t have any income right now, and for all intents and purposes I should feel some kind of financial pressure, but I just… don’t. I have enough savings to live off a couple of months and I’m somehow, organically spending less than ever. I guess my spending habits were a way to stave off the stresses of a full-time working environment. I also have full faith in my plans for the next half year, so some kind of money will for sure come my way.

What am I doing?

So what exactly is this new lifestyle? My daily routine looks like this:

• I get up, somewhere between 9 and 10.
• I make a pot of coffee.
• I work about 2 to 3 hours. These work hours I spend on getting not-so-fun stuff out of the way, e.g. editing, email, or social media.
• I make and eat lunch, slowly. Usually pretty healthy: rice with some kind of Banchan.
• I take a walk, usually somewhere between 45 minutes and 2 hours. Audiobooks have been keeping me company, motivating me to actually go out.
• Sometimes, I then get back to work. That’s usually another 2 to 3 hours, but the fun stuff: prototyping, game design, blog post writing, etc.
• Dinner time!
• Sometimes, I do another bit of work. You guessed it, 2 to 3 hours. I always make sure this is a light load: leisurely typing some boilerplate code, playtesting whatever I made, reviewing what I wrote. Nothing too cerebral.
• Usually, I spent the entire evening hanging out with some friends online, playing games.
• I go to bed around 1 at night, so that’s a solid 8+ hours of sleep.

I usually have about 2 social events throughout the week as well. Now, I’m not a disciplined person at all. This is not a regime I carefully plan and maintain. It’s just a nice rhythm that grows organically out of what I feel like doing each day.

What struck me is that this rhythm is quite repetitive. I would have thought I would get bored of it sooner, rather than later, but it makes me happy instead. Every morning, I’m excited to repeat the process. The same thing over, and over again. Previously, I would have thought that to be a maddening experience.

Stuck in a Rut

Some years ago, I had a similar but polar opposite experience. I was doing the same thing, every day. I felt like I was stuck in a rut. There was no progress, only stagnation. Day in, day out, my schedule looked like this:

• Wake up at 8 with an alarm.
• Work.
• Fast Lunch.
• Work.
• Fast Dinner.
• Go to bed way too late to make up for whatever I felt I was missing.

But why did that feel so limiting, while my current life feels so freeing? What’s the difference between being stuck in a rut and maintaining a healthy rhythm of life? Well… I don’t feign to have all the answers, but I’ve observed at least two things: space and choice.

Space

It wouldn’t be an official Daan train of thought if I didn’t at least bring up something vaguely game design related. I’d like you to imagine my two daily routines as a loop. Well, I guess you don’t have to, I made a graph!

As you can see, my stuck-in-a-rut loop is small. It basically has two steps, work and play. There is no room for anything else. And we, as people, are in the center of it, without space to breathe. This means everything else starts piling up in the background. Chores, social life, exercise are all necessary but don’t receive the attention they deserve.

But then, if we draw the rhythm-of-life loop around it, the amount of steps forces the circle to be bigger. Well, it’s not really a circle more than a sunny side-up egg, but you understand. Now, there’s more space to breathe, to do chores, to do social things.

Choice

The astute among you might have noticed that I saw a lot of “sometimes” in my daily routine. Specifically, before the work parts. That’s because I very often decide to not work instead. After I come back from my walk, I very often just… Chill out. Usually play a game, read a book or watch some anime. And the same for after dinner. Or I do those chores or social events I talked about before. Or take a nap.

I am under no obligation to work. And that’s the most freeing part about this whole endeavor. Do I not want to work? Of course, I do, I love working. But I also love being able to not work, if I so please.

Now, there’s probably some kind of game design wisdom in all of that. Something about gameplay loops and player agency and all that. But, maybe today, you can figure that out for yourself if you want 😉

Why am I doing? (this)

Like I said, this daily routine grew pretty organically. I started my daily walks because I want to listen to my spooky stories podcast, but can’t concentrate on it if I’m doing anything else at the same time. I have since realized that these short bursts of work, instead of prolonged full-time work days, make me much more productive. In the 15 to 25 hours per week I’m working now, I’ve been more productive than ever at the same time. Of course, I’m trying to let go of productivity as a measurement for quality of life, but capitalism do be like that sometimes.

I want to give a quick shoutout to all of you who are reading this! I’ve had some much lovely feedback and comments about it, and it really motivates me to keep on going. Thanks everyone! And don’t forget, health is a personal thing. You can only figure it out for yourself, don’t let society dictate it for you.