More on Essentializing

I might as well give up on my blog hiatus, as my reduced level of productivity has had a negative emotional impact. My original intention was to put off blogging and my other productive ventures in favor of my project since the problem that made the project necessary interferes with the quality of my life and my ability to be productive, as thoughts on solving this problem often pervade my mind. I've realized that not that much energy is required for focus on this project, and I've hit a point where I'm waiting for something to happen before I move on. Even when I do move on it isn't going to be back-to-back hours of working for the completion of this project, so I have little excuses for my lack of productivity and certainly deserve the discomfort.

Plus, I have to admit that even a brief absence makes me miss participating in the online Objectivist community, as I have no acquaintances that share these philosophical values and limited means, at the immediate present, to make things otherwise. Hopefully someday I'll be able to attend an Objectivist Conference. Until then, if I want to enjoy online company, then I must be present to provide company as well.

Anyhow, back into the vein of productivity, I am still having problems essentializing my life, as you have heard me speak of before (here and here). It's a really difficult task! I suffer not from the problem of wanting things to do, but having to choose from too wide a range of things, far more than I could ever get done or involved in. As such, I've been working to try and pick out only the essential values in my life and dedicating myself to them solely, but every now and then I get back into do-everything-mode and stress myself out. Blog reading, for instance, has been particularly bothersome since I follow so many blogs on Google Reader, and I know that if I read too much in a short time frame there will be too little time for thinking, thus deleterious to my long-term memory. As a solution to this problem I'm going to simply check certain blogs everyday for day-to-day news, and then let posts on others build up so I can dedicate myself to reading multiple posts of a blog (usually of one theme) in one sitting.

(Though perhaps my worries about my memory should be the subject of a piece. I do not have any inherent memory problems, but I fret at doing a great quantity of intellectual work in a short time for fear of most of it being forgotten due to information overload.)

But what of the other realms of my life? Cooking, writing, studying, and all that? I think maybe it will be helpful to split my life into categories, and then determine the value of each and the appropriate time commitments. I know that, at least, some activities can be neglected for a long time and then done in marathon sessions, such as (recorded) television series and movies. Other things, however, add more complications, such as the slow processes of studying or writing.

Oh! Hard thinking to do! I don't know what to say now except that I need to get a piece of paper out and do a bit of brainstorming. I'll give an update. (Don't I always?)