Weekly Update #006
by Jacob RobinsonHello all,
Trying to add something new to my productivity schedule. Really this is more of a life thing than Astukari/JBR thing, but it is relevant to the topic, and I don't really have any other updates this week so I figure I might as well talk about it.
There are two definitions of what it means to live a "fulfilling day", in my mind. The first is the simplified version written by E. B. White: "To think, to cry, and to laugh, all in a single day". Fair enough, I think it will get you most of the way there. But I think perhaps an abstracted answer to this is to "live in rewarding short-long time dilation every day". This might not mean anything to you if you don't know about time dilation, but fortunately for you I have a word count to hit for this post on IndieHackers, so I will explain:
There are four ways we experience time: short-short, short-long, long-short, and long-long. The first word relates to how long an event actually takes. The second is how much it lives in our memory. Here are some examples of each:
Short-short: Doesn't take too long nor feels that way. Brushing your teeth in the morning.
Short-long: Doesn't take long but has a large life impact. Filling a college application.
Long-short: Feels like forever but you barely remember it. Waiting in line at the DMV.
Long-long: Takes awhile but has an importance in your head. A wedding.
For the most part, all of these have their benefits. But of particular interest is the short-long dilation, because you can tell it can have some really big compounding effects. If you do one life-changing thing a day, what could that look like in the long term?
So, I'm trying it out. Each day for the next 30 days (and counting, hopefully indefinitely!) I have a huge task scheduled for each day. For example, today's is to edit all of B&G Part I. This has huge life-altering effects -- it takes the book from "it might be out this year" to "I can release it whenever I want". Now, there's a change it might be long-long (honestly it probably will be) but long-long events are also nothing to scoff at. I want to see how sustainable this is over the long term, especially if I continue doing usually dailies and habits.
