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New Year's Resolution 2010
Jan. 12th, 2010 10:44 amKeep an activity log.
This is based on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
haikujaguar's suggestion. I'm writing down, very briefly, whatever it is that I did that day. The focus is creative stuff, but I'm including non-creative stuff which was time-consuming and/or significant things that I had to get done. Sample entry:
1/10/10
Art card
Xp allocation for WT
Laundry (4 loads)
HS: 6.5
The "HS" is the day's rating on my happiness scale, because one thing that I want when I'm depressed is to be able to look back and see how much of my life I've spent depressed. I'd like to be able to point to a big block of day-by-day assessments and say "hey, you averaged a 7.2 for the last two years so quit it with the 'I'm always depressed' stuff. This too will pass." We'll see if it works.
I am tempted to include other stuff -- which games I played or movies I watched or conversations I had -- but the point is to make it something quick that I can do in a few minutes, and that I can catch up on if I miss a few days. So trying to avoid scope creep. It's a log, not a diary. I've been doing it since December 29 -- apparently I liked the idea enough to try it immediately -- and it seems easy enough.
Do some marathons
The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about marathons, making the point that, "in a long-term fitness sense, marathons are really sprints; the true marathon is the exercise program that lasts for decades".
And I think this applies to creative marathons like Nanowrimo and the 24 hour comics and the like. They're really sprints in the sense of a long-term creative life.
But this is not to trivialize the commitment and energy that marathons require, which is considerable! Moreover, there's something pleasantly rewarding about setting and achieving short-term goals. So in 2010 I want to set some more short-term goals like these, things I can do for a week or a month and then declare victory over them. Some of these may be more marathon-like than others.
January's marathon is to finish the 30in30 project. I'm at twelve so far.
February may or may not have a marathon. I'll decide when I get there.
And that's it for my 2010 NYR. I just want something goal-oriented and simple this year, since last year's felt both too broad and too vague.
This is based on
haikujaguar's suggestion. I'm writing down, very briefly, whatever it is that I did that day. The focus is creative stuff, but I'm including non-creative stuff which was time-consuming and/or significant things that I had to get done. Sample entry:1/10/10
Art card
Xp allocation for WT
Laundry (4 loads)
HS: 6.5
The "HS" is the day's rating on my happiness scale, because one thing that I want when I'm depressed is to be able to look back and see how much of my life I've spent depressed. I'd like to be able to point to a big block of day-by-day assessments and say "hey, you averaged a 7.2 for the last two years so quit it with the 'I'm always depressed' stuff. This too will pass." We'll see if it works.
I am tempted to include other stuff -- which games I played or movies I watched or conversations I had -- but the point is to make it something quick that I can do in a few minutes, and that I can catch up on if I miss a few days. So trying to avoid scope creep. It's a log, not a diary. I've been doing it since December 29 -- apparently I liked the idea enough to try it immediately -- and it seems easy enough.
Do some marathons
The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about marathons, making the point that, "in a long-term fitness sense, marathons are really sprints; the true marathon is the exercise program that lasts for decades".
And I think this applies to creative marathons like Nanowrimo and the 24 hour comics and the like. They're really sprints in the sense of a long-term creative life.
But this is not to trivialize the commitment and energy that marathons require, which is considerable! Moreover, there's something pleasantly rewarding about setting and achieving short-term goals. So in 2010 I want to set some more short-term goals like these, things I can do for a week or a month and then declare victory over them. Some of these may be more marathon-like than others.
January's marathon is to finish the 30in30 project. I'm at twelve so far.
February may or may not have a marathon. I'll decide when I get there.
And that's it for my 2010 NYR. I just want something goal-oriented and simple this year, since last year's felt both too broad and too vague.
