Recently I caught up with my friend Robin Rendle, who encouraged me to write more. So I thought I’d share a few words now and not stress about it so much. (Part of what causes me not to write is worrying that the thoughts I would share are not valuable enough — or not shared in the right places. Should I publish this to Hey World, or write a blog post? Whatever. Today it’s here.)

Last year around this time I shared thoughts on working modes. After tracking that stuff intentionally for many months, I realized that I hadn’t been “fogging” very much at all. Which is great! But I also hadn’t been “freeing” very much either. I was all “fielding” & “focusing”. Great for getting stuff done — not great for feeling happy and satisfied.

So I tried an experiment for six weeks, in February and March. I dedicated every Wednesday to freeing. I blocked the day off on my calendar, did a fairly good job of protecting the time, and tried to be intentional about loosening up and letting my brain go wild.

The result? A huge positive change in my attitude and stress levels. Plus, many benefits for my colleagues (when I’m freeing, I’m often sharing what I read and think about). On top of that, there have been no negative effects to my claiming this time. I have missed a meeting or two, and perhaps my other weekdays have gotten a bit more crowded to make up for it, but those can be separate problems to solve.

For now, I am enjoying this freeing and I’ll try continuing it for another six weeks. I also want to try a second, more risky experiment: one freeing week every six weeks. We’ll see how that goes.