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on the subtle

By clock (Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 08:48:35 AM EST) (all tags)

and perhaps the sublime?

late yesterday i came to the conclusion that taking off 3 days next week was the best spur of the moment idea we've ever had. three days of camping and then the weekend. three days in the air will feel really good. and two days afterward to relax and ease back into things will cap it off nicely. i also think we've officially opened discussions on a significant vacation in the fall. all good things. because i need things to anticipate while grinding away.

i tried to get myself motivated enough to hit the garage last night and do some work on my guitar. i failed it. i also failed going into the studio to record while the wife did her yoga. something about my laptop and watching her bend over in front of me for almost an hour got in the way. i'm silly like that i guess.

i'm seriously sick of having a todo list in my head with items that never get ticked off. as such, i'm starting to use the lappy as a productivity tool. i'm going to plan some of my personal projects the way i plan stuff at work. i have some serious long term goals that need to be addressed! i've always said it's difficult to create on a schedule and yet i did it all throughout my academic career.

in short, i'm going to schedule the completion of my guitar and the various stages of my collection of tunage that i haven't been sharing. iCal and todo list, here i come!

in some recent conversations with old friends, i've come to realize why i cling to my pet projects the way i do. no one that i interact with during my time at work thinks of me as anything other than that funny guy who solves all of the problems. for some in other states or countries, i'm a reassuring voice on a phone or a brain in a box that drops solutions into their email. i'm very compartmentalized. at work, i'm not me. or at least not the me i know. i'm myself at home. or when i'm engaged with an instrument or concept. when i'm doing something that matters to me and resonates with why i want to be on earth.

yeah...a little time off can't come soon enough.

so a quick question: how do you organize your personal projects? or do you?

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on the subtle | 22 comments (22 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Personal projects? by nightflameblue (4.00 / 1) #1 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 09:25:59 AM EST

I organize those very loosely, but they are organized. Mostly just a list of things I'm going to do, in the order I'm going to do them. Then I give myself a ridiculously far off deadline for each of them and if I get one done early I reward myself by allowing myself to move up a project I'm looking forward to more than the next project on the list.

It's a simple and sometimes stupid system, but it seems to work to keep me moving on things. It also helps to prioritize. Because by the time I finish a project, I'm excited about something enough to re-prioritize it to the top of the list. And the un-important things remain on the list.

It works for me.

i've been very loose... by clock (2.00 / 0) #6 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:07:39 PM EST

...with my organization and using the dude as an excuse is really convenient. i'm going to make my goals weekly so that i can prepare for missing stuff due to random events and issues. but i'd like to stick to weekly stuff.

i guess my problem really is that i do thing concurrently instead of serially.

hrm.

_{Clock is right. [nt] --vorheesleatherface}

[ Parent ]

: The balance. by nightflameblue (4.00 / 1) #12 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:24:52 PM EST

Kids are awesome excuses to not do anything. Even when they aren't your own. And spending time with them never feels like you're actually wasting time. The problem in the long-term situations is finding that balance between spending enough time with the tiny ones, and spending enough time on your own things to where you don't feel your neglecting them, nor are you neglecting yourself.
I'm sure you'll find that balance eventually.

[ Parent ]

Organization? by ana (4.00 / 2) #2 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 09:26:36 AM EST

Whazzat?

Seriously, I "get things done" only on other people's deadlines and schedules, for the most part. I write a novel in November. I learn music for a concert on a known date.

I install the fancy music program on my laptop... You know, the one my esteemed partner bought me for xmas? Uh, sometime Real Soon Now. After taxes, yeah, that's it. Or maybe we'll take the puppies out for a run or something instead. First.

The work thing? Good progress lately (due to a meeting yesterday) on project the first. The book chapter that was due last August? That I promised by the end of this month? Nowhere. And the project for that meeting in Philly in April? Uh, I don't even know what I want to do with that, which would be why the abstract is vague.

"And this ... is a piece of Synergy." --Kellnerin

: load it up tonight! by clock (2.00 / 0) #7 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:08:36 PM EST

you won't regret it! truuuuuuuuust me!
and yeah...things like nano rock! i'm thinking i should do that monthly with my projects. that's starting to sound good, actually.

_{Clock is right. [nt] --vorheesleatherface}

[ Parent ]

It is all in my head. by vorheesleatherface (4.00 / 1) #3 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 10:42:12 AM EST

I try to keep the number of projects small. For ongoing long-term personal projects, I adopt a "fuck it it gets done when it gets done attitude." Things like writing an hours worth of music and getting good recordings and mixing it. It can take a couple years. Fuck it. Things like the mercury dime collection I just finished (with the exception of the 16d I refuse to spend that much money on) I attack and get done as quickly as I can because I'm impatient and don't want more long term projects. I feel too much anxiety when I have lots of personal hobby type stuff that is in the queue. Like my pedalboard...(see too much shit going on in my head) that I was always changing. I like having it setup in a satisfactory way so I'm not constantly thinking about how to improve it. (I just put an AC-2 on it. Noisy but pretty sounding accoustic simulator.) Then there is....yeah, see? Limits are sooooo important. Without limits I go nuts.

"Of course. I goatse my MP once a week!" - Hulver

: i know what you mean... by clock (4.00 / 1) #8 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:09:44 PM EST

...i need limits...and a deadline. and that's where i've got my trouble.

_{Clock is right. [nt] --vorheesleatherface}

[ Parent ]

PPMP by Rogerborg (4.00 / 2) #4 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 10:58:58 AM EST

PPMP's a Project Management Project.

What's the most productive font for your todo list? You don't want to skimp on that decision, or it'll really cost you in the long run.

-
Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.

: comic sans is not a font by clock (4.00 / 1) #9 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:10:18 PM EST

remember that.

_{Clock is right. [nt] --vorheesleatherface}

[ Parent ]
: wing dings by wiredog (4.00 / 1) #15 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:45:55 PM EST

Or maybe ding dongs. Or buffalo wings.

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}
[ Parent ]

I by Gedvondur (4.00 / 4) #5 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 11:23:37 AM EST

I use the misery method. I start a project, abandon it, obsesses over not having done any work on it, put it away and forget about it, remember it later with crushing loads of guilt and remorse for being so busy with life and social interactions then shove it bodily out of my mind only to have it crash back down on me like the guild Judas felt. This process can be years.

Then sometimes I finish them or throw them out with a last dagger-like feeling of intense sorrowful guilt for being a quitter.

Gedvondur
"...I almost puked like a pregnant StackyMcRacky." --MillMan

um... by clock (4.00 / 1) #10 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:11:05 PM EST

...wow...maybe sea monkeys would be good?

_{Clock is right. [nt] --vorheesleatherface}

[ Parent ]

Have you ever smelled rotting seawater? by nightflameblue (4.00 / 4) #13 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:26:01 PM EST

Not a good idea.

[ Parent ]

Yours dies too, huh? by wiredog (4.00 / 2) #16 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:46:46 PM EST

Ah well. Life's rough.

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}
[ Parent ]

: Yeah. by nightflameblue (4.00 / 2) #18 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 02:13:11 PM EST

Damn brine shrimp. Life will find a way. Except when I'm put in charge of it.

[ Parent ]

Heh by Gedvondur (4.00 / 1) #20 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 02:37:49 PM EST

Well, honestly I had insomnia last night, so perhaps things aren't quite as bleak as I wrote them this morning when I first read your diary.

Gedvondur
"...I almost puked like a pregnant StackyMcRacky." --MillMan
[ Parent ]

I think maybe... by toxicfur (4.00 / 2) #11 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:20:47 PM EST

you're me. That's how all of the home-improvement projects I have are organized in my head.
-----
If you don't get a Bonnie, my universe will not make sense. --blixco
[ Parent ]

: lol by Gedvondur (4.00 / 2) #19 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 02:34:17 PM EST

Made me laugh because home improvement projects are exactly what I was thinking of.
Gedvondur
"...I almost puked like a pregnant StackyMcRacky." --MillMan
[ Parent ]

``i'm doing something that matters to me '' by lm (4.00 / 1) #14 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:41:53 PM EST

Good for you!

There is no more degenerate kind of state than that in which the richest are supposed to be the best.
Cicero, The Republic

Being blessed with OCD, by MohammedNiyalSayeed (4.00 / 1) #17 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 12:59:41 PM EST

my personal projects are largely the result of automatic brain organization, if not largely a function thereof.

-
You can build the most elegant fountain in the world, but eventually a winged rat will be using it as a drinking bowl.

i don't have pet projects by alprazolam (4.00 / 1) #21 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:53:35 PM EST

I'm either doing something, or not doing it. I don't convince myself that I'll get around to shit that I know I won't get around to. The only things I leave for later is something like folding laundry, which I'll do when I'm on the phone or watching a basketball game. Or taking shirts to the dry cleaner, which I'll do two days before I absolutely have to in order to wear them to the next wedding. I don't have any real need to fill my free time with anything "productive". If I wanted to be productive, I'd work harder at work.

personal projects by dev trash (4.00 / 1) #22 Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:59:40 PM EST

I'm writing a piece of software that will allow for more fine grain control of my todo list as sending emails to myself is not working.

--
Click

on the subtle | 22 comments (22 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback