I was reflecting on a few things. Some of this happened while having conversations with friends. I realize that I actually enjoy work and working on things, most things, as long as I have one or two factors in place.
The big one is simply not rushing. If I allow myself to take the time I want to complete something, it's not hard for it to be enjoyable.
This requires a few factors and thoughts. I can't just do anything anyway. But a second related factor, or maybe it's just a part of this first one, is not feeling like I'm not doing enough. It's a kind of awarness, or acceptance, that there are x hours in a day, and even if I work dilligently, I can only get so much in. Therefore, when I finish the day and I haven't gotten everything done on my todo list, it's ok. I've spent my time well each step along the way, and so I feel good about how my day has gone.
As I said, this requires a few additional factors. Most notably, some basic level of organizational system, where I have all my obligations and time-specific meetings/deadlines, in my calendar and on a list where I'll look at it regularly enough to be aware of things that are coming up.
This allows me to, knowing the speed at which I do things, get them done with a little time to spare, so I don't have to feel rushed. Again, it's all about being allowed to take my time on things.
Another element of that, is having habits that make sure I don't dilly dally or drag my feet. Sometimes I'll give myself a deadline, like an hour and a half, to finish a dense textbook chapter, with note-taking. I'll time it in half-hour chunks, and when the alarm goes off, look at how much I have left to do, and speed up if it doesn't look like I'll finish in time. Speed up doesn't mean try and skim through it, it means take less detailed notes. This is a good way to keep whatchamacallits law... Parkinson's law, in check. (where work expands to fit the time allotted to it.)
This doesn't always work. Sometimes there is a lot of work that has to get done in a short period of time, and I don't know how much truncation will affect the outcome because it's new to me. Like the first week of classes where I was misinformed about when the reading was due and had to read two weeks worth in one week. Then I just have to overwork for a bit and be exhausted.
But most of the time, it works.
In addition, I'm trying out a new habit, where I give myself an hour each day, to work on the #1 most important thing to me. Often this is a longer term thing, like "get organized" (or a specific sub-goal/task of that big goal) which it's easy to just ignore forever because there are always more pressing things to get done. But, not always more important. So far it's been implemented inconsistently, but it's quite enjoyable, whenever I do fit it into my schedule.
Why is this all important? Well, ultimately, I want to be able to end each day feeling like I spent my precious time well on this earth. Having big goals can be fun and motivating, but if I've got the attitude of "I'll only be happy/able to relax once I've achieved x goal" then I'll kind of be wasting the time before that happens not to mention I doubt most goals (all goals?) will have the ability to keep me contented indefinitely, after they've been achieved. Life is more of a process than an end goal. Ultimately the end of life is death, so it's not really "about getting to the end" and even if I think it's about self/God realization, why waste the time before I'm enlightened being more miserable than necessary? And I think being process oriented and present time oriented is actually a boon to the process of self-realization.
And, on the side of subjective truth, the present moment is all we ever have. We can act and plan so that our future versions of ourselves are enjoying their present moment too, but if you continually do that at the expense of the present, you're never or rarely getting that futur pay-off your looking for.
Plus people who are happy in the present tend to be more successful in their endeavours anyways.
Plus we're notoriously bad at accurately prediction what is going to make us happy in the future.
This may all seem kind of paradoxical: I'm focusing on organization and planning, something that ostensibly seems future oriented, yet interested in my present-moment experience.
Another kick I've been on recently is the fact that life is complex, and rarely is one side of an argument right, usually there is some synthesis of the two conflicting viewpoints that is where you actually want to be. The Buddha's "middle way" is a great example of this. Neither strict asceticism, nor loose hedonism, but a balance of control and relaxation, intelligently applied moment to moment. Generally the synthesis is not just some middle ground, lukewarm to someones hot and cold, but qualitatively different and experientially superior.
It's like science. The usefulness of science, the pursuit of truth, is it's predictive power. When your understanding is close to the truth, you are more effective in the world. In the area of philosophy, I think that might mean a life that experiences joy, love, peace, and fulfilment, and helps others experience that as well.
That's this week. Take care and see you later,
-Isaac
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