What’s Possible vs What’s Realistic

There’s a difference between what’s possible and what’s realistic.

Each Friday I have great big visions and aspirations for what I want to get done.

And each Friday I’m met by a reality check about what is realistic for me on this day.

I’m not sure my aspirations are even possible — there are only so many hours in the day. Even if I used each waking minute to it’s fullest potential — without getting caught up in distractions, without needing to do errands or laundry or speak to people; without needing to take a shower, or eat meals, or take a moment to pause and breathe — even if all I did was wake up and begin working without ever looking up, I don’t believe it’s possible to do everything I set out to do.

And even if it were technically possible, it’s certainly not realistic.

The time might be there, but the energy is not. My mental bandwidth is not that wide.

Honoring My Rhythms

For me, Friday is to my week like 4 pm is to my day.

It’s my energetic dip time. The time in which I am generally scattered and unfocused.

It’s the time best suited to shallow tasks that require little cognitive bandwidth.

Laundry. Errands. Talking to friends. Light straightening up — but not organizing. No planning or review.

Every once in a while I’ll have a Friday where I am able to sustain attention and do some quality work. Just like I’ll sometimes have a day when my 4–6 pm window is unexpectedly productive.

I’ve learned that the bursts of energy and focus at these times are the exceptions rather than the rule.

How I Approach Low Cognitive Days

Knowing this doesn’t mean I’ve stopped having big ambitions for my Fridays. What’s different is how I approach the day and what I do with those big ambitions.

I create a routine for Fridays that’s different from my routine on the other days. I schedule calls with friends, and talk to them while I’m hanging laundry, taking a walk, or running errands. I do my best to leave myself plenty of space in my schedule so that I can take advantage of transition time to do some writing or tend to other work.

When my mind starts to swirl with all the things I want to get done, I get it all out of my head into a note or journal entry. Not as a list of “to-dos,” but rather as a stream of consciousness brain dump.

Then I let it go.

I release the expectation that I will do any of those things.

I remind myself about what’s realistic given my energy levels and cognitive bandwidth.

And then I go back to my routine.

I find that the more I remind myself about what’s realistic, the less I fixate on what I’m “not getting done” and the less I beat myself up.

This helps me end my week in a better state of mind, with a morale boost that I carry into the next week.