I am working on a post about this past weekend, but in the complete absence of motivation, I have been trudging around the Internet to pass the time. (Work? What is that?) I came across a website called “Jake Has Standards” about a guy who uses weekly standards to monitor his life and encourage self-improvement. Go check it out and see for yourself, then come back so we can make fun of him.
Honestly, I have to give the guy some serious respect for working hard to make his life a better, more meaningful and productive place. I am a list-maker myself; nothing gets me motivated quite like a to-do list with little boxes I can check off as I get things done. But writing time into my schedule each day to write my schedule and then write about how I did with my schedule sounds a little too…scheduled. And also boring and a little anal.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t benefit from some standards of my own. Maybe a requirement to accomplish, you know, something each day, maybe just one tiny little thing instead of letting the day drift by from morning until night in a sea of random acts of passing time. There are definitely days where I am productive and on point, but then there are many days where I go to bed and know that I did not advance the plot of my life one single bit, and that is a little depressing.
But I draw the line at flogging myself for not working through an uninterrupted stretch of 8 hours. Eight hours is a long time; I can’t remember the last time I did anything for eight straight hours. Maybe that time I rode the Shenandoah Mountain 100, but I also wanted to cry and puke my face off by the time the eight hour mark rolled by. The idea of eight hours of non-stop work is so depressing, because there really is no point to ignoring the temptation of taking a phone call or reading a website for fun. What if you got crushed to death by a falling air duct while you were diligently working at your computer, despite a nagging desire to stop for a second? Won’t you wish you’d taken five minutes to get up, pee, and look out the window while twirling your arm hair?
I suppose it all boils down to the whole “to each his own” thing, and also to the fact that maybe I’m a little bitter that Jake With Standards is an ice sculpture of humanoid glory while I’m more like a jello pile of existence. But even if I did set standards for myself, they’d probably read like “No crying about biking: FAIL” or “Remember to take dogs out once: Score!” Right now I’m more in a period of taking life as it comes and trying to find pleasure in the moment (a byproduct of reading “The Power of Now” and “Eat Pray Love” simultaneously, resulting currently in a desire to Eat Now). Maybe one day I will work more effectively towards achieving some higher standards, but right now I’m about to hit “Publish” and that means I have done something for today and can mentally exit the building. Score!
I almost idolize Mr. Lodwick. He’s about the same age as I am, created both collegehumor, vimeo AND tumblr and pretty much sits around in his brooklyn loft and does whatever the hell he wants.
I wish I had half the motivation he has because maybe I would have a better outlook on my own life. The sad thing is that the only thing holding me back from being as successful as he is, is myself.
Yeah, yeah, I’m not saying he hasn’t accomplished things or that I don’t give him credit for having some serious discipline. But life is short. I’d rather not feel bad for not flossing or going to bed at a reasonable hour.
Go watch Risky Business. Then be Tom Cruise’s character.
Carey, go watch Baldwin’s motivational speech from Glengarry Glen Ross then get out there and close! Cheese and rice with all the boo-hooin’!
Lindsay, if you haven’t seen it, track down Ze Frank’s post on Brain Crack. Thank me later.
My daily to-do/not-to-do:
Use incredible e-wit to flush on someone in cyberspace: check
Refrain from punching dumb motherfrackers in the face (fist/arm will get exhausted): check
Meh. I like your way of looking at it, Linneke. Life’s too short to constantly worry about the little things you are or are not doing. Discipline is awesome until it changes who you are and leaves less room for the fun stuff. I forget that far too often.
So the only thing I’ll add to my “To Do” list is live more for the moment and less for the routine bullshit.
I’ll start right after hit the gym, drink my protein drink, shower, brush my teeth and floss 🙂
My dad walked into his coworkers office on the day of his (the other guy’s) retirement. He was standing on a chair picking books off a shelf. My dad asked “you have a lot of books!” And his friend responded … “I wrote those books”. “How?” … I came into work half an hour early for 30 years.
There is something to be said for doing something every day. But people pull things out of a hat. How many diaries do I have scattered around with 3 days of entries? Lots. I tried to do it because I read (or heard) that doing so would improve my life. But I didn’t have a deep connection to the activity.
Working from home can be tough for some. For a while I had to create a “do nothing for an hour” task to force myself to relax and do nothing. And I had to remind myself to eat and take care of everyday things like doing laundry.
So I guess a lot of it has to do with what your current challenges are.
Congrats on just taking things as they come. And, as one of my favorite last lines of a movie says, “Plan to be surprised!”
Hi there. I see that a lot of people have advised you on things to see and do that are associated with your post. Ignore all of them (at least for now) because my recommendation is tantamount to none. For an hour of entertainment and commiseration, watch Demetri Martin’s “If I” hexalogy on YouTube. Do it now. Really. I’m waiting.
Oh, and if you’ve already seen it then I’m mad at you for not telling me about it since you wouldn’t have known until now that I’ve already seen it too!