Daily Planner

[transientdance]

Last year was my first trip to the burn. It all kind of blends together. One thing to watch out for is attitude. For someone like myself I would suggest having something to be absorbed in because a lot of the people are not always useful...some sort of project to tinker with and give others a way to relate to your presence.

Another thing would be training on a bicycle. I felt limited by camp mates' lack of enthusiasm for the exercise. It may be a good idea to pre-plan and negotiate the idea of heading out solo.

I may have a somewhat pessimistic perspective, being a bit reclusive...

Another thing that would be worthwhile IMO would be researching the music that can be found around the playa so you know what you're doing. With so much going on and large distances over loose substrate the scale can get to be overwhelming or unexpected.

I need to figure out where to find some IDM electro oriented stuff, dubstep, if I manage to make it out this year...

[trystanthegypsy]

There was a dubstep camp last year, it was great! 2:00 and Chaos I believe.

my day:

10:00: crawl out of boiling tent and go pee. luckily JOTS were maybe 2 min walk away for me
10:10: sleep in hammock in dome for a little while. usually too hot.
11:00: go to camp kitchen. whine about missing breakfast.
11:00-1 or 2 or 3 or 4: sit around camp talking to campmates, eat lunch, drink, paint nails, take bath, wash hair, drink water, think about going out, poly high tea. hope my friends show up. (50% of the time they actually did!)
afternoon: get on bike and try to go to workshop. get lost/distracted/too hot on the way.

Evening: I actually kept a watch on my bag because I tend to end up on the other side of the playa, having a great time, and realize it will be dark in about 10 minutes, it's getting colder, i'm out of water, starving, and naked. I need to go back to camp and start getting ready for the evening relatively early (1 hour before sunset which is 7? 8? I don't remember) otherwise I get really frustrated and cold trying to get ready in the dark by myself, then having to cook (having missed camp dinner), when it's already 10:00 and my favourite DJ is playing in half an hour.

Night: bike around and dance to favourite djs. hopefully i found someone to roam with. Attempt to overcome fear of strangers and talk to people. Sometimes works!

2 or 3 or 4 am: crash.

sometimes I stay up until 8 or 9 am, but then I'm usually too tired to enjoy the lovely cool weather in the morning. I'm not ever the type of person to get up early and enjoy it, so I may try getting ready around 5 or 6 in the evening, then napping until 11 or 12 when most of the good music starts so I can just pop up out of bed and go out in the lovely cool of the night

[Sham]

I was given this link to design and print out a pocket daily planner quite a few years ago and have used it ever since. You can modify each page as you wish, but I give myself lots of lined blank pages for notes on events I want to attend as well as contact info for people I meet along the way. I guess this is what people did back in the dark ages before iPhones and pocket computers. You can design each page from the templates and then print it out and fold it into a tiny pocket booklet.
http://www.pocketmod.com/

[Savannah]

Making or keeping plans on the playa can be difficult, so I make virtually no promises to be anywhere. With the exception of a Greeter shift, I have no firm plans ever. However, there are some reoccuring themes.

[5:50am - At least once during the week, wake up early or stay up all night & watch the sun rise sometime just after 6am.]

9:00am - The sun bitch-slaps me awake. Don a flowy garment. Breakfast. Chilled coffee drink. Check the Guide for one-time events (most crucial not to be missed) & then repeating events. Read ahead in the guide. Know that half of it may be difficult/impossible to find or will start an hour late.

9:30am - Noon: Read, write, hydrate, chat w/ campmates, wave/catcall at neighbors. Regret the inability to nap.

Noon / 1:00pm - Eat indifferently out of grudging responsibility to corporeal shell.

1:00 / 2:00pm - Costume up. Ride bike around looking for adventures/art to photograph. Visit friends. Make new friends. Dance classes. Yoga classes. Watch performances. Join performances. The afternoon is actually the most unique & interesting part of the day for me.

6:00pm - Eat protein-heavy small meal like vacuum-packed salmon filet, maybe w/ packet of rice pilaf or similar. All pre-cooked, but unheated.

[Disco nap of 3+ hours after dinner, if tired. I always set an alarm, because if I fail to do so, I may sleep the whole night. Sometimes I shut off the alarm and just sleep anyway. Worse things have happened]

7:00 or 8:00 - Twilight shower--maybe. If I do it earlier I'll just sweat right away, or have to follow it w/ sunscreen, or get caught in a dust storm, which in my experience are--mostly--while the sun is up. (I know there are exceptions.)

8:30-9:00 - Pack a small backpack with canteen, flask, stainless martini glass hanging off a caribeener (so I can accept drinks), snacks, goggles (plus spare pair), camping t.p., hand sanitizer, chapstick, eyedrops, kleenex. Light self up. Go out dancing & wandering.

2:00am / 3:00am - Clean feet w/ wipes & lemon juice. Install silicone earplugs & eyeshades. Sleep like the wind.

[jcliff]

I'm sensing a morning routine theme on daily schedules, and I'll chime in with that too. My morning routine has become routine....and that's a beautiful part of my Burning Man experience. I think I have a pretty good one....so I’ll chime in.

8 am or so wake up because I'm being slow-roasted in my tent. Head straight away to my near row of JOTS with a full water bottle and start drinking. I stop and say good morning to my waking neighbors on the way back and chat about the events of the previous evening. Back to the tent for some personal care....I have a small beverage bottle for teeth-brushing spits. A fairly comprehensive baby-wipe personal cleanse, I use no-rinse facial cleansing wipes on my face. Lotion lube all over, Neutrogena makes a daily moisturizer lotion that's SPF 30.

I spend extra time on my feet. With normal baby wipes I dig out every bit of playa dust that's accumulated in the crooks and corners. Then I use my special foot remedy that wards off any alkaline playa dust foot rot. Before I go I take a baby-wipe box and toss the baby wipes. I replace them with half-sheets of a soft paper towel (cut down to size.) I take 2 or 3 towels at a time and mist them with a weak vinegar solution and layer them in the baby-wipe box. This jerry-rigged foot wipe was a God-send on my 2nd year on the playa. It was like night and day. I'll swear by it.

After personal grooming, I lay two big bed sheets over my mattress, my pack and other belongings. The sheets are easily folded up after a long night, and my bed and belongings are largely clean after a dust storm.

I pack a ziploc bag of smoked almonds for breakfast. They're packed with protein and the bit of salt helps to balance my electrolytes....I pack extra to share with people along the way. I head to my Village kitchen by 9 or so to meet and greet and help with morning chores if they're needed.

Then off to Center Camp. I get my mug filled with coffee and my water bottle with electrolyte drink. I find a spot, read about the daily activity offerings, share almonds, meet some people, people watch....and by 11 am I'm off exploring. I normally have a destination in mind but rarely make it. My day-time explorations happen as they present themselves.

I do try to make some time for a late afternoon nap...and those cat-naps carry me through the night. There's some great cat-napping locations and facilitators on the playa....you have to find them for yourself.

I'm a Lamplighter, so by 5 pm I'm back in our village working....prepping lanterns, helping volunteers navigate what's asked of them and getting ready to light the playa.

6-8 pm I'm lighting our city.

8 pm I'm in our village dinner line.....getting ready to eat much better than I do at home.

8:30 on.....couldn't sum it up, but always magical

[SilverFly]

Reading these schedules is making me very excited... Last year was my first year and this is basically what happened:

8:30 am: Awakened by sun and heat in tent. MUST USE BATHROOM! Stumble out of tent, throw on slippers and scoot off to the JOTS.
8:45: Return to camp to gather friends who woke up after me, walk with them back to JOTS. Bathe with no-rinse bathing wipes. Cover myself and friends in suntan lotion, get dressed. Make sure sheet is covering my sleeping area to attempt to keep dust off of my bed. Then set upon a search for camps that gift coffee (our theme camp did not bring coffee this year).
9:30: Partake in impromptu hindi dance lesson in awesome coffee-flowing dome.
10:30:head back to camp and make/eat breakfast with campmates. Fill camelback, make sure my extra water bottle is clean. Look at schedule and decide what event we're going to head toward (and much like everyone else, never make it to) and head out. Wander around looking at art, being sure never to stray too far from the JOTS without stopping there first. Experience things that we happen to come upon, like getting our hair washed or taking the proper steps to become a cat. Snack on something. Drink water. Talk to people.
2/3:00: Find shade structure with pillows, chairs, anything soft and nap.
Sometime after that: Wake up in a sort of stupor. Talk to others sleeping in the same area as you. Realize that I need food, water and JOTS. Go back to camp. Eat snack. Hang out with camp mates.
7:00: Camp dinner. Help clean-up afterward. Take nap.
9:00: Wake up, JOTS, second bath of the day, put on costume, snack again, refill on water, attach lights and head out.
3:00 Insert earplugs and go to sleep.

Every time I found myself back at camp I refilled my water bottles and tried to be mindful of my nutrition intake. I especially like to make fresh lemon water which is beyond delicious alkaline goodness (lemon juice is most alkaline for the first 15 minutes after it's squeezed). Also, never underestimate the power of a sno-cone.

[VeganChoirGirl]

Last year was my first year, and it was totally different than I expected, of course. But more amazing than I ever knew!!

So! I rise sometime between dawn and 7am, when my wigwam becomes too hot (going hexayurt this year). Then it's time to find some grub. Whatever was offered to me at camp or from another camp accross the street was my go to. In the default world, I am vegan and love to cook. For some reason, at burningman, I cannot even make myself boil water and meat, dairy, and eggs?? Bring it on!!! Still, I eat breakfast, then coast on a few mouthfuls of snacks for the rest of the day. I ate an average of 600 calories and lost almost 15 pounds on playa last year. Who wooda thunk? Anyway...so, after eating I pee, take a baby wipe/garden mister bath with lemon juice, and get dressed. Then it's out to group shade to smoke, drink water, and watch the rest of my campmates greet the day. By nine or ten I am ready to wander out on foot, by art car or bike and see the city. I generally have no plan, just a desire to see and experience and participate. Around one I generally head back to camp to refil water, take a rest, eat a snack, usually nuts, olive, or sardines from the can and drink a little dirty gin martini, and mist myself in the shade. I am very sensitive to the heat, so I generally stay at home base or a new friends camp through four or five when it begins to cool down. By then, people are trickling out of tents and back from adventures, ready to set out for a little pre dinner drink or dance at pink mammoth. I eat another salty, protein filled snack by seven, and see what the plans are for the evening. Generally it's pretty relaxed around camp until nine or ten when we head out for the night to dance, see the art, meet new people, and enjoy the lights. I usually stagger back to my tent by three or four, exhausted and ready for sleep.
That's a genral day for me.

A note on camelbacks, I love mine, couldn't survive without it!! :-)

[ohCarie]

This year will be my first burn and this has been the most helpful thread I've read so far. I think it will help me prepare now so I can relax and enjoy the adventure that awaits. I was starting to feel overwhelmed by it all and the sheer simplicity that a day-in-the-life account provides has had a calming effect, aaaahhhhh. Thanks veterans!

[ibdave]

This year will be my first burn and this has been the most helpful thread I've read so far. I think it will help me prepare now so I can relax and enjoy the adventure that awaits. I was starting to feel overwhelmed by it all and the sheer simplicity that a day-in-the-life account provides has had a calming effect, aaaahhhhh. Thanks veterans!

ohCarie, You'll get that "overwhelmed" feeling as soon as you pull off the pavement to begin your adventure.......

Welcome to the world of Burning Man..... Welcome home...

[trystanthegypsy]

mmmhmm salty, protein filled snacks...