Last week I invited you to track your rhythm for a week. If you’d like a refresher, here is a link for a chart (in PDF format) that you can print out to track your life and work tempo for one week. Here are some observations I made while tracking my rhythm this past week. Which observations ring true for you? What different observations did you make? I’ll devote tomorrow’s blog post to helping you debrief your rhythm tracks.

Here’s what I noticed tracking my rhythm for a week:

• It’s easier to track my actual life tempo than my ideal life tempo. When I first look at what my ideal might be, I either: don’t know, get upset that I’m not living my ideal tempo, feel guilty that my ideal tempo isn’t just FAST all the time, feel sad that I seem to be living faster than my ideal tempo all the time I’m awake.
• By tracking my rhythm it’s a way around just having the To-Do List be the master of the week. Tracking my rhythm is a way to reinforce how important listening to how I ideally operate – my zone – is for my happiness as a person and ultimately my productivity as well.
• There’s a part of me that afraid that if I slow down to my ideal rhythm I will no longer be successful – at work, music, everything. In other words – some part of me lives by the assumption that if I listen to my own rhythm and follow it I’ll be a failure.
• I often choose the music I listen to to push me to one tempo or another – either slower or faster.
• I want to continue this for a few reasons – one of them is that every week is different for me. This past week I was in the office all week after being on the road with clients for weeks on end, so that colored how my rhythm is. I wonder what my rhythm is like in the office after a recovery week. What is my rhythm on the road? I’d like to have a clearer picture of that.
• Unlike music, personal rhythm is more subjective. My medium pace is different than your medium pace. I notice I rarely have the urge to play a fast tempo. But I’ve gotten feedback from people that my medium is faster than their fast. And I’ve worked with people in the financial and sales fields and their slow is my fast.
• It helps to write down hourly vs. trying to reconstruct the day at the end – or worse, days after.
• It’s easy to slip into getting angry at yourself for not doing it perfectly. Pema Chodron says, “Bring in as much gentleness as you can. The technique is already quite precise. It has a structure, it has a form. So within that form, move with warmth and gentleness.” I need that reminder.
• Television and movies have their own rhythm. They can dictate the rhythm even if I’m close to catatonic.
• Email (especially a lot of email at once) puts me in a quick, surface rhythm, one of fast reaction, not initiatory action.
• This exercise is way more effective for me to notice my rhythm than anything else I’ve written about so far.
• I want to also track how I’m feeling – am I tense or am I relaxed? There’s nothing wrong with playing any song at any tempo – but am I tense or relaxed while doing it?
• Different activities inspire different tempos at different times. For example, when cleaning up during the day I find I want uptempo energy, but at night I want something soothing.
• My rhythm often changes within an hour – I’d like half-hour segments.
• Two rhythm nuances I’m finding helpful – medium ballad (like the song Polka Dots and Moonbeams is often played) and medium up (like most of Sinatra’s swinging hits)
• I want to also track whether I’m feeling tension or relaxation within my rhythm.
• I want a place to take notes about what I’m doing and/or why I’m doing it. How does that information color my experience?

This post is part of a series by Rob Fletcher that links the rhythm of music to your rhythm and the rhythm of your team. Quixote Consulting’s music team building site www.musicofteams.com has a wealth of free resources to help you integrate the power of music into your life, work and team. From the manic fun of Name That Tune to writing a team theme song, learning how to play harmonica, guitar, drums and more, Music of Teams music team building has the musical setting to help your team ‘band’ be at its best.