Bobby Rock

The Bobby Rock Newsletter #64 (6-25-22) - Get Shit Done with AM/PM Bookends

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Hello Gang - 

Just getting back home from a few action-packed days on the road. Thanks for dropping into Newsletter Land again with me this week. Hope to share a few useful (or at least entertaining) tidbits. Let’s do it!

In This Issue:

• How and why creating a few rituals and routines in your AM and PM can add real value to your life…
  
  
• Conversely… flexibility can be your friend! Lessons in "embracing chaos" from the world of touring…
  
  
• Running Man: Six years of doing these “selfie” running videos goes full circle in Milwaukee last night.
  

Post-show shot with Lita Ford and co.
at Summerfest in Milwaukee yesterday

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Getting Shit Done with AM/PM Bookends

In The Compound Effect, author Darren Hardy points out that the parts of our day we have the most control over are the first part of the morning and the last part of the evening. Everything in between, as we all know, can be up for grabs, as we navigate a long list of variables that often drop out of the sky and back-burner our well-intended to-do lists. His suggestion? Bookending our days with productive routines for our mornings and evenings. 

This is an idea that I have continued to try and tweak to varying degrees through the years, especially mornings. But I have more recently found real value in trying to do a few things at night, as consistently as possible, to set the stage for a better night’s sleep and, of course, the best possible start to the next day. In this way, as Brian Johnson at Optimize often points out, a great day really begins the night before, so you can kick things off well-rested.

So, to this end, one of the most effective things you can do in the PM is forego all electronics within an hour of bedtime. This “digital sunset” concept is something we've been talking about for a while, and if you did nothing else as a “PM bookend,” you would be ahead of the game here. 

Avoiding the blue light of our screens allows for natural melatonin function (as opposed to squelching the shit out of it), and avoiding the mind-scrambling stimulation of Internet rabbit holes or TV allows our minds to wind down a bit. (I found this to be quantifiably effective for better quality sleep, as I documented in Newsletter #52 via my sleep app.)

In the alternative, you could read (an actual book or “lightless” Kindle), do some journaling or writing, listen to some music or an audiobook, try some light stretching or yoga, etc. But the bottom line #1 practice for me is going into airplane mode before bedtime.

This might be the most valuable function on the iPhone!

For the AM Bookend, I would start small and easy and try to build a few simple routines. Three deep mindful breaths after you brush your teeth becomes a five or ten-minute meditation; a five-minute walk around the block first thing in the morning becomes a 30-minute walk or run; and writing three sentences in a journal becomes a 500-word morning minimum if you like to write.

This is precisely what Hardy is talking about with regard to controlling your time. Get that shit done early! How many times do we say we’ll work on that project (writing, music, business plan) “this afternoon,” but by then, life happens, things pop up and… “Son of a bitch… I’ll have to get to it tomorrow.”

And remember… you don’t have to start with your best-case scenario. I’ve found that virtually any amount of writing I do on a new book in the morning stays in my brain throughout the day. Even if I have to break away after only a paragraph or two, I find that my mind is activated… thinking about what I have written… thinking about what should come next… or what could be reworked a bit. It’s worth taking the time to go through the motions and stick to your routine as best you can, whatever it may be. Then you can get out of airplane mode and jump into the Land of Uncertainty.

Which leads us to...

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Crushing It in the Chaos

The bookended rituals, as described above, are most easily engaged when life is at its most routine—predictable, even—and we can easily find the time to practice them. Of course, this doesn’t make them easy to do, but it does make them doable. So how about when things are not so routine… when things are mired in a chaotic sort of unpredictability and time and favorable circumstances are suddenly at a premium? Then, my friends, it’s time to “embrace the chaos.”

This is something I’m quite familiar with as a touring rock musician, as there are not too many other professions I know of where “unpredictable circumstances” and downright “whacked conditions” are actually woven into the job description. That said, most everyone lives with this similar duality of, essentially, predictable days vs. unpredictable days. Maybe it’s simply a matter of weekdays vs. weekends, or regular life vs. vacation life. Whatever the case may be, here are three things that might help: 

1. Simply have two different kinds of AM/PM routines. For me, that would be…

Home-Mode vs. Road-Mode

As you might imagine, life has a different pace in Home-Mode as opposed to Road-Mode, and I’m always trying to fine tune my protocols to accommodate each radically different mode. At home, things tend to be pretty easygoing where an official schedule is concerned. In fact, I try to not formally calendar much of anything in terms of having ironclad times to do my stuff. Yes, I love my work and can spend hours a day engaged in any combination of writing, training, practicing, or doing some other biz. But I prefer to take a more elastic pace through the day. 

The road is basically the opposite. Everything is calendared, often to the minute. Sure, many of these times can shift or be rescheduled along with our delayed flights, pick-up times, and soundchecks as other variables unfold. But we work from a schedule that ensures we hit the stage at our contracted time—period. And so, to keep all of the moving parts in sync, we often deal with some insanely early lobby calls or late-night returns to the hotel. And these “unreasonable” call times can become wrecking balls to any kind of AM/PM bookends.

Here on another 5:00 AM flight this weekend with my
road warrior drum tech, Jesse Davidson

So it’s important to essentially have your Plan A (predictable) and Plan B (unpredictable) game plans in place.

Which leads us to…

2. Have one super easy aspect to your Plan A bookends that can easily be utilized in your Plan B bookends.

The key here? Super easy, super token. Maybe it’s simply taking three deep, meditative breaths after you brush your teeth (which, I’m hoping you might do in the AM and in the PM!). Not that you’ll get a whole lot out of that, but it keeps the ritual alive on some level, and keeps the AM/PM Bookend concept front of mind for when you return to normal life.

3 Paradoxically, I find that the more consistent you are with doing your AM/PM routines, the easier it is to navigate through the chaos of not being able to do them. 

This reality struck me as counterintuitive because I presumed I would get some sort of dependency on the cool daily rituals and feel lost when I couldn’t do them. Not so! Instead, I found that the benefits of those consistent practices actually made it easier to “embrace the chaos” and roll with whatever came up on the road. So don’t be discouraged if you have to deviate from your routines at times. 

+ + + + + + +

In closing, I would say that, like so many other things we talk about around here, it’s all about practicing… about failing, sometimes repeatedly, but then continuing on with our practice. Always. I’m right there with you…  

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A Tale of Two Vids:
Going Full Circle with the Running Videos

As many of you may know, I do these selfie-style running vids where I film myself out on a run and offer a brief overview on the current conditions or circumstances of the moment. “Hey gang, it’s 2:00 AM and I’m out for a run somewhere near Kansas City. We just played a show last night and…” etc. 

Why do I do these? Well… I guess because folks really seem to enjoy them, because they celebrate the joy of exercise, and because they serve as something of a personal video journal for many of the places I’m privileged enough to visit in my travels.

And so, last night in Milwaukee, I was doing another post-show vid after playing Summerfest with Lita Ford, and it hit me: I’m pretty sure Milwaukee was the sight of the very first running vid I ever did back in 2016. At the time, it was just a random, inspired moment of reflection I felt compelled to capture on video. But then it became a thing. And shooting last night’s clip was kind of a full-circle moment.

 

I’ve been meaning to create a designated “vlog” page where most or all of these vids are documented from around the world. (There are dozens!) But for now, I thought you guys might get a kick out of seeing these two back-to-back, six years apart. Scope ‘em here:

https://www.bobbyrock.com/pages/running-vids

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Thanks again, everybody. Connect next week! Until then, BR _______________ For Your Quick Reference: My main website at www.bobbyrock.com is constantly updated with cool new stuff. Be sure and take a moment to sign up in the upper right-hand corner of any page on the site. It only takes a minute. This will give you a much more customized experience, and also grant you access to various members-only areas, events, etc. Tour Dates: If you are signed up to the site, you will receive an automatic email notification any time I'm playing within 150 miles of your crib. Newsletter Archives: Scope all the back issues here. There is even a Table of Contents reference so you grab an "at-a-glance" view of what's in each issue. News Feed: Stay in touch! Think of this as Facebook and Instagram rolled into one location, plus extra posts exclusive to the site. The Bobby Rock Store: Books, Music, BR drumsticks (stage-played and brand new), T-shirts, Signed 8x10s, Dragon Dirt and more... Dragon Dirt: My brand new custom superfood powder. Scope the site for tons of info!