It's more of a guideline, not the Pirates Code.

It's not what I planned, but it gets me where I want to go.

Early on in my illness, I started reading audiobooks over text. My biggest field of interest was productivity. This was an odd choice because, at first, I had difficulty sitting up in a recliner and staying awake for more than an hour. Still, I was reading cutting-edge material on personal productivity. They did not seem to go together.

It drove my husband crazy. I would read a book with earphones, fall asleep with them, and forget they were plugged in, so he could not tell if I was listening to him or reading a book. I had a dazed look on my face in either case.

My reading contained some helpful material. My big takeaway was to take charge of the short-term daily functions by creating principles and intentions that could be applied to these activities. In the place of long-term goals, I made up habits and practices that pointed me in the direction I wanted to develop. I made a whole-day routine with a checklist and activity for every hour. I didn't often get to check every hour as a success, but author Gretchen Rubin's mantra kept me from getting frustrated: "Every hour is a new day." Slacking off and falling asleep is ok because the top of the next hour is a reboot. Another mantra I picked up is to confirm that "I am doing the best I can."