As I write this line I am already aware that I have produced a few strategies below. Index:
- Strategy: Day Plans
- Strategy: A Week in a Day
- Strategy: Thinking About It
- Strategy: Planning for Castles in the Air
Strategy: Day Plans
Here’s an idea: Establish a ritual upon starting the day for delineating some plans for tasks to be conducted (i.e. during that same day). I envision these day plans to be mildly specific (e.g. write an essay about randomness, rather than simply write) and numbering a few (viz. an amount that hovers around what can be reasonably completed, but potentially slightly more, allowing for some guilt-free selection). These tentative specifics aside, the real test and details will become tangible by my actually conducting this strategy. Nonetheless, here is an example of what today’s day plan could well be (or “have been” – it’s 3 am and I’m yet to attend a proper sleep):
- Continue study of Scaruffi (nb. this sounds vague, but is easily braced by what I’ve written elsewhere about this particular task).
- Review recently read Hamilton novel.
- Watch around 30min of Java tutorials.
Immediate observations: (a.) I may want to ensure variation in the mode of activity (e.g. video versus reading, but hopefully also many others); (b.) these tasks are easily subsumed into more general goals, and I may want to make those explicit (i.e. to practical avail); (c.) in fact, this mock-up inspires me to want to generate a more general (i.e. not daily) list of tasks (i.e. of similar scope) – something I may call, something like… “Achievements”, or maybe “Practical Preference Selection” (nb. part of the point being that it depends on the nature of the listing as a whole, not that it is particularly vital, cf. aesthetics).
Strategy: A Week in a Day
I’d had another idea about time-management and the way I think about progress and so forth. Instead of holding onto the sleep-wake cycle (and its ties to the Earth’s diurnal cycle) as the master quanta of temporal experience, I can select any duration using an equation or algorithm according to my own predilection and creativity. Within that infinite array of options is that of using the week as the boundaries of a unit of timing within which (and against which) I measure progress and achievements.
For a given (e.g. present) week-cycle, allot tasks and (i.e. in an ongoing manner) record advancements. Note that tasks only expire (or are reset) at the end/beginning of a cycle, and while ongoing recordings occur piecemeal according to their rate and pattern of activity they are ultimately given as a measure for the cycle as a whole. It is helpful to compare what occurs in a (traditional) 24hr cycle versus this (new) 168hr cycle.
For example, the Philosopher Brief project has more breathing room, and by doing so allows for a more regular pace; similar implications hold true for any project whose breadth is much larger than what can fit into a single day and/or is committed irregularly (i.e. on sporadic days). These cases are traditionally ill-served since they only achieve significant recognition on days when they make significant progress, or especially when completing some milestone. Also, and because of that poor recognition, projects can languish as the system fails to assist their motivation.
Strategy: Thinking About It
Today I’m on a roll, suggests the evidence.
I’ll write more later, but for reminder’s sake, let it be recorded that this strategy (which perhaps is more of a “plan”) is comparable with the other two already described, involving as it does some foresight and planning what to do in the immediate future. In particular, the planning directs myself some things (aka “trains of thought”) that I’d like to think about (i.e. explore through the mindscape).
There is no limit to the topic which this strategy may target; examples that come to mind include philosophical matters, implications of political/current affairs, putting myself in another’s shoes, etc. As for the practical manifestation of this strategy, it could see myself choosing one of these as a topic of meditation to occupy my mind in similarly countless instantiations, including during a walk, or before going to sleep, etc.
Strategy: Planning for Castles in the Air
This too fits nicely with the trend above. This is the fact that I may delineate goals beyond my current reach. Such goals may be outside acute expectations for any number of reasons, but the effect is a common one – they are virtually dismissed, with the thought that whenever they become “reasonable” then their details can be recalled and due attention awarded. Among the unfortunate implications of that default strategy, are missed opportunities; if these goals are instead recorded and perused, then they hold greater potential to inspire and prompt.
