“The Plan is No Plan”. This statement was repeated about 100 times in 2 weeks of camping away from civilization with a group of friends.

“What’s the plan tomorrow?” => “the plan is no plan”
“Are we going to this mountain?” => “the plan is no plan”

We were living each day at a time. There were ideas from the days prior, but we chose what we wanted to do on the day itself. The default was dropping any idea or commitment from the days before, and starting with a blank slate: what feels right today?

It’s so freeing to not be chained to commitments. When was the last time you woke up to 0 commitments? No meetings, no timely to-dos, no pre-planned coffees/lunches/dinners?

Coming back to “real life”, I realized how intoxicated I was by commitments in my daily routine. Even something as simple as “let’s grab a coffee and catch up” adds to that toxicity. I don’t think we’ve evolved to run on a schedule. Don’t get me wrong, I obviously see the value of that system for getting things done. But not all things are best done in the same way – the creative acts (arguably the most valuable) are often done in the opposite manner.

I realized how imprisoning such commitments are. I value freedom. You’re not really free if you’re chained by commitments, no matter how simple they are.

This reminds me of the “Unscheduled Life” by Naval.

It’s quite an extreme: never commit to any event at a future date.

“It means you have to break the heart of every person who expects you to be in a specific place at a specific time. That’s their expectation, that’s their problem, not yours.”

I want to live more unscheduled, with no commitments.

“Until when are you here?” => “I don’t know, I don’t plan”
“Can you meet for coffee tomorrow?” => “I don’t know, message me tomorrow”

Creativity thrives on freedom and lack of commitments.

Actually, you can’t achieve a flow state if it’s interrupted by the thought of a prior commitment. “I need to be elsewhere” is the antithesis of being present in a flow state.

I may not want to subscribe to the unscheduled life full time just yet, as I’m not willing to pay the price of the compromises that come with it yet, maybe one day. But I for sure want to live at lease 1-3 days unscheduled per week, and increase from there.