When my daughter was a baby, we sang a lullaby version of “The Ants Go Marching” to her to help her sleep. The song was a little countdown clock that sent her right off to dreamland--and still does when I’m allowed to sing it. To keep myself from falling asleep, I used to try to work in as many original rhymes as possible for each number. If you are unfamiliar with the song, here is a sample with our sleep-customized lyrics in parenthesis:

The ants go marching one by one (to sleep, to sleep)
The ants go march one by one (to sleep, to sleep)
The ants go marching one by one
The little one stops to do something that rhymes with one.

And so it goes up to 10. Some numbers lent themselves more easily to rhymes--ants going one by one can stop to have fun, eat a bun, get some sun, take a run, get things done, etc. But ants going five by five have slightly less varied lives. They can dive, drive, alive...did I say dive?

I was thinking about this song because I have been thinking about patterns that create a simple, repeatable frameworks but that also allow for variation and creativity. The Ants Go Marching lullaby did exactly what it was meant to do every time no matter how I changed it. I need more flexible patterns like this in my life. And since singing my children to sleep is no longer a daily ritual into which I can inject new meaning, I need another vehicle.

What rhymes with 5,000 or 3.1 or 33?

The all-purpose pattern that has become part of my almost daily ritual is the 5k. Generally, I run the distance--3.10 miles or 5 kilometers or 5,000 meters. That’s how the metric system works, right? Already the idea of 5k is lending itself to all kinds of variations.

5k=3.1 miles
5k=5,000 somethings
5k=33 minutes (about the time it takes me to run 5k--at least that is what it took this morning)

How can I 5k every day?

I can run 5k. Lots of (younger, fitter) people do. But I can run a 5k comfortably and generally not be in pain afterward. It’s manageable, quick, and I have lots of 5k courses already mapped in my head from my house.

I can walk 5k. On work days, I already walk about 2 miles to and from work, I would just need to add another mile and a bit. Take the long way, not the most direct way.

I can write 5k. Not 5,000 words a day but perhaps 5,000 characters? Word Count on my computer tells me I have about 2,348 characters (with spaces) at this point in my essay. Can I double that each day?

I can read 5k. While writing 5,000 words is a tall order, reading 5,000 words is only a few pages--likely not even a chapter. Doesn’t seem like much of a challenge. Perhaps this is where metric no longer serves me. Perhaps I could read 3.1 chapters?

I can account 5k. I would like to pretend I am talking about money here--$5,000 a day would do me just fine--but, alas, I am not. What do I do 5,000 times a day? Breathe? Hear my heart beat? Check my email? It seems this is another chance for me to change my rhyme from 5,000 to 33.

What can I do for 33 minutes?

Laura Vanderkam in her recent book “Off the Clock” advocates allowing yourself a kind of vacation every day. She believes that we can feel more in control of our time and feel we have an abundance of it if we are more conscious of how we use our time. The luxury of an intentional daily vacation--reading a book, drinking coffee while watching the sunrise and not checking email, playing the piano--helps us see that we do have time to savor the activities that we really want to do.

How will I 5k every day?

Tomorrow I will run it. And Friday I will walk it. While Saturday will host another run, I’m not sure that will be my 5k.  By the weekend, I will need 33 minutes of vacation. I like 33. 10% more than half an hour, it’s a margin of error or the little bit fast I set my clocks.

Whatever way you 5k, the most important thing is to do it intentionally--to set out to complete a 5k every day rather than look back over the day and decide that the compilation of funny cat videos you watched on YouTube counted as a 33-minute vacation because it was about half an hour. But if you set out to spend your daily vacation on YouTube, well, that’s another story.

I often think about descriptions of experiences that, taken out of context, seem almost magical or at least bizarre.

• Sitting at your dinner table in Chicago and reminiscing about the breakfast you had this morning, in London.
• Working on your computer and complaining that you had to wait so long, like 10--maybe even 15--seconds for that website to load.
• Waking up in the morning and contemplating how today’s vacation will be different from yesterday’s and will set the stage for tomorrow’s.

George Carlin has a piece about the amazement of saying sentences that have never been said before. He gives some examples, which I will paraphrase, “Tonight I am going to put a hot poker in my eye and chop off my toes.” While he acknowledges that there is a good reason why this sentence has never been said before, his observation about creating sentences that no one else ever has is worth considering: it’s not the content of the sentences but the fact that “no one ever thought to say that before tonight. I'm the first person in the world to put those words together in that particular order. First guy. Number one.”

So, after you read this blog and while you are considering your daily 5k, imagine the conversation you will have while explaining your plan. What sentence will you say that no one has ever said before? What will you rhyme with 5k, 3.1, or 33 that no one else has rhymed?

You: I’m going to start doing daily 5ks.
Them: What?! You’ve never done a 5k!
You: I’m also going to vacation every day.
Them: What?! You can’t do that!
You: Today, I’m going to Starbucks and ordering a coffee to drink in a ceramic mug in the cafe. Do they still offer drinks in ceramic mugs?
Them: What?! Can I go, too?