Chris Edge reflects on choosing the right unit of time—one copy, an hour, a morning, a week—to make overwhelming schedules manageable, using the steady rhythm of a double‑side copier as a guiding metaphor.
Chris Edge: What's the unit of time that's going to set you up for success today? Double sided copies being made. One side at a time, two sides, 50 copies of that one page. The beautiful thing is we know that time is going to continue timing.
Good morning, Cadre. How are we doing on this Monday? Monday morning, how are you doing? You know, I most often have music playing in the background. Today you're getting the sound of double sided copies in like a household printer, not like an industrial one. Can you hear it? It's right over there. One copy at a time. Chris Edge, how are you, my friend? Sometimes we get music, sometimes we get the music of our life. Double sided copies being made. One side at a time, two sides, 50 copies of that one page.
Something kind of peaceful, huh? Maybe we don't see it that way, but there's something peaceful about the copier doing the copies, the coffee doing the coffee and us sitting here right where we are. If I look at this week as a chain of all of these activities and hours in the office this morning at 6 and I know I won't be driving home until after 10 and they go, oh my gosh, that's, that's 16 hours, that's 60 minutes, an hour, that's 30, that's, that's 32, half an hours. All of a sudden, the unit of time that I'm choosing to look at my day or look at my.
And my story with begins to deflate. But right now I'm thinking one copy at a time. I love that. That copy just keeps going for me. No jams. There was a jam, that'd be another story. Like right now I'm going, okay, one copy not and then the next copy. Nope, just one copy. That's what I'm doing. Right? The beautiful thing is we know that time is going to continue timing. We know what we're going to keep doing. But if we don't choose a unit of time that allows us to be in the space in the midst of that, we end up missing out.
So whether you have a very daunting week where it's like, oh my gosh, I have all these things to do, all these things to do. It's going to be one big long week. And you, you can't fathom that one week. Fathom that one copy. Set the unit of time, whether it be an hour or a day or a week or a month or a year or a project or a meeting or a morning or a drive or a conversation. Set that at the unit of time that you go, yeah, I can do that. I can do one copy and resist the urge to go, and then I'll do the next and the next and the next and the next.
Because you're not respecting the unit of time, but you can see, right now I know that my copies are done. I know that my Cadre today is nearing its end, and all of a sudden I'll move this stool in this box downstairs, and I'll set up a room and I'll lead a rehearsal, and then I'll head home, and then I'll do some medical stuff, and then I'll hop into a meeting, and then I'll drive to another rehearsal, and then I will da da da da da. And then tomorrow, and then da da da da da. The copies are done right now.
I'm with you. What's the unit of time that's going to set you up for success today? I invite you to figure that out and then to start TikTok in your way right on through those units. My copies are done. I'm saying we'll see you tomorrow. Have a good one. We'll talk to you next time.
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