Systems. Experimentation. What's really important.

 I am 'working' my system, and it generally feels good. It feels great in fact, to have the time to work it. And often the working of it, itself, feels good, which is the whole point. Just feeling like I have a well-functioning system, that keeps track of all my commitments, is really nice. It's currently a very simple system, which was the point. One main list with all the stuff I've decided to do. I check that, decide what to do, and I'm good.

In reality, it's a little more complicated. Nearby to my one list are a few others that seemed useful. I've got one for email and one for shopping. I don't want to see those when I'm in work mode, since those things can be distracting to me. I prefer doing them in bursts, all together. eventually I will likely have a few others, but it's just a collection of some simple lists. And then a calendar that's got any upcoming specific date/time things, and reminders that I need to be reminded of at a specific date.

I was reminded yesterday though, as I was enjoying the beautiful sunrise outside during my morning sit spot, that what makes life worth living is that kind of thing: natural beauty, and the peace to enjoy it for a few minutes every day. Not having a super organized system and a clean room. Those things are very nice, and feel great, but it's not the same as the soul-deep satisfaction of reveling in God's creation and natural beauty, feeling deeply at peace and grateful. The habits and systems I'm developing are for the purpose of supporting more of those kind of moments, and if I lose track of that, the systems can become an end in themselves and end up getting overly complex. Like a governmental agency that's been given too much money and ends up wasting it on busy work, creating new categories of work and inefficiencies so that it "needs" even more money the next year, to manage all the additional complexities it created.

I can't spend my whole day at my sit-spot, at least not regularly, so I think I need a better idea of what kind of living constitutes that feeling, in my day-to-day life. Though I think in general the answer is simply true spiritual practice, making every act of mine a step on my spiritual path, in line with my deepest values and aspirations.

But a little more specifically, I'm thinking of my recreation. I can only focus intensely for so long each day. How do I rejuvenate myself in a way that feels soul-enriching, rather than just passing the time.

This is an important question I think, given the preciousness of time and life. Each hour, once spent, is gone forever. It should be spent well.

In other news, I have a few goals before graduate school starts: 

I want to get my systems up and running smoothly and strongly, so the extra workload doesn't throw them off, and to help me handle and keep up with the work, and basic life maintenance and life goals.

I want to get a hang of good note-taking skills, as I'll be using them a lot.

I want to do as much pre-work as I can, familiarizing myself with the website and systems, so I'm not trying to do that at the same time as the work, especially in the beginning as I figure things out.

Classes start August 28th, so that's only a bit over a month away. That's a fair bit of stuff to do in the interim, plus continuing to push-forward the general house readiness, getting everything tidy and put away. (I'm not even thinking about the kon-mari-ing getting rid of stuff part yet, that can be a slower, later project.

I also want to be doing continuing research and preparation for parenthood, since that's kinda likely some time in the next few years. (don't have control over when specifically.)

So, there's a lot to be done.

One of the main points I'm getting from the latest book I'm reading is, there isn't time to do everything, so in order to do some things well, and not be overwhelmed, I've got to be selective in what projects I choose to take on, and lot let it grow without end.

So far, so good, though I'm still in the experimental stage in terms of my systems. But it feels like a promising start.

I'll continue this in a seperate post, as it's going rather long.

to be continued...