First Published: 2023 June 3
Prereading note: sorry, this one got really rambly. I should probably fix it up at some point
Like many people, I wish that I did more.1 At the very least, I wish I had better knowledge of where my hours went.
As a result, I have tried a number of things to get my life in order.2 None of them have worked as well as I would like, but the struggle a few weeks ago did lead me to think more deeply about what my priorities really are.
I was making a list of activities that I wanted to complete. Some of them were things that I enjoy doing in and of themselves3, and some are things that I enjoy the knowledge that I have done them.4 It made me think of a nice two dimensional way to rank different activities.
The two axis5 titles that I settled on were do and done. What does that mean? Great question.
Do is tasks where doing them is itself the goal. For instance, I like reading because it’s a fun task and I enjoy doing it. It may benefit me, but even without the growth it causes, it’s something I’m glad to do. As I write, I realize I should have started with done, so onward.
Done is what I described as tasks that I do not necessarily enjoy the process of completing them, but I enjoy the knowledge that I have done them. As I mentioned in a footnote, running is really my best example of this. Every time that I run, I find it an unpleasant experience. Nevertheless, every time that I look back on a time that I have run, I am grateful to myself for having run.
Another way to think of it is future versus present enjoyment. Things that I enjoy doing bring me enjoyment in the present, as I do them. Things that I enjoy having done, by contrast, bring me enjoyment when I look back on the fact that I did them.
I have no clue if that made any sense, but it does mean that I can group most of the activities I do into four quadrants. Ideally, I would like to spend all of my time doing things that I enjoy doing and having done. Equally ideally, I would spend none of my time doing things that I neither enjoy doing nor having done.
As I made my list, though, it occurred to me that ranking the other two categories is an interesting values judgement. If I prioritize things that I enjoy having done, then I will likely enjoy each day less.6 On the other hand, if I prioritize things that I enjoy doing, I am likely to stagnate in most of my endeavors.
Returning once more to my realm of ideals, it would be fantastic if I was able to learn to enjoy in the moment all of the activities that I enjoy having done. If running became fun, for instance, I am sure that I would run more.
As I think about my day, though, I realize that I spend a lot of time doing things that I neither enjoy doing nor having done. That’s probably not great for me. Partially, it could be that I have the wrong framing for some tasks I accomplish. Failing to do something, for instance, could be reframed as setting me up for a future success and therefore a thing that I enjoyed having done.
That is not most of what I find lives in that quadrant, though. I am very easily sucked into time sinks.7 I know while I am in them that I will not be glad for having spent my time on them in the future. Even while I do them, I am not so much enjoying what I am doing as killing time.
I only have so much time, and it would be great if I stopped trying to kill it.
643/95
wow that’s such a bold start to a blog post.↩︎
non-exhaustive list includes: scheduling events by the minute, saying what activities I want to do before and after certain milestones in the day (like going to work), making a list of activities I want to do, to do lists (which are different somehow), ranked priority list of all the things I need to do↩︎
e.g. playing music↩︎
running is really my best example for this. I hate running but love when I have run↩︎
axes?↩︎
at least according to first-level effects.↩︎
specifically, useless time sinks↩︎