I saw Merlin at the NYC OmniFocus panel, and asked him for a book recommendation, and he kindly recommended The Now Habit. I read it, and though I can’t say I’m scheduling “play time,” I’ve been keeping a log in iCal for 6 days. As Fiore promised, my stress level is dropping, despite this being a particularly traumatic week work-wise.

It’s a lot of benefit for nearly zero effort. I have to track my billable hours anyway, so all I do is fill in the blank spaces in my new calendar group (“Log”) with other colors.

Beyond stress relief, I’m now “batching” work into time blocks and stay on point for more reasonable periods of time. If the habits I’m learning in this exercise stick, I can see myself having more stress-free fun and making more money.