So far it's working.
I'm timing myself.
I have a giant todo list that has its own pet todo lists, and sometimes they fight. Sometimes not, but anyway it's a real mess, and mostly I have been ignoring it except to add more things and feel guilty about it all. That's unproductive.
Really, though, I don't need to be productive. I answer to no one no more, nohow, aside from paying my rent on time. Once I do that I can go back to trimming my nose hairs and napping, but. But. But it ain't a life, and I need one.
So one thing I'm doing is sitting here with the intention of relearning/seriously learning "Computer Science", that mis-named discipline. For something to do. Because when you get to the point that you don't need to have anything to do, you do. Life has to have a purpose of some kind, so I invented one. It's a thing. Lots of people find out about it once they've reached their goal in life. "So what now, eh?" You need something. You can't just stand there and wait.
I heard an interview with John McPhee not that long ago, in which he said that he's got a project started that will out live him, that when you get to a certain age and a certain mostly-independent time of life, you need that. Something monumental, a mission that gives you something to struggle with and against. Something that you can't possibly finish in the time you have. So you can feel right and proper about yourself and about life.
What you do is to find something you are seriously interested in, and commit, and see if you can, in any way possible, complete the task even though it's impossible. That way you never need to worry about what you're going to do today or why you're still here, or what the meaning of life is, or whether you should have a third beer with lunch and sleep away yet another afternoon because now you have A Plan and can't get away with aimless drifting any more. You have a goal, a mission, a purpose, a challenge.
Stuff like that.
And then I saw Plan, do, learn: My admittedly hardcore work routine
by Channing Allen. Bingo. Now I've got a thing. A mission and a thing. A thing that has been helping me to have fun and also to be focused. So far it's working.
Every day, instead of looking at my todo list and feeling that it's becoming more and more like a predator and more like I'm the prey, I decide on three or four things that Must Get Done today if I'm to have any self-respect and deal with whatever it is that needs attention, and not just my personal goal-things, but things that really do need attention. (Taxes, voting, other financial items, and so on.)
So I decide on several of today's things, guess how long they'll take, and set aside time. For things that cannot possibly be finished today, I at least will have scheduled a definite amount of work time to devote to them.
Then I start.
I pick one item and set a timer. I see how far I can get in the amount of time I have, and when the timer goes off I stop. Stop and take a break and go on to the next thing, and, and. And I'm getting more done, and making more progress on those things that can't get done today but which need attention.
OK so far. Worth a look.
See tabs at the top for definitions and books.
Have anything worth adding? Then try sosayseff+nosey@gmail.com
Me? Bought a three-stringed nose. Planning on taking up picking.