Consistency in 2023

I’ve said previously that I don’t do New Years’ Resolutions. There are a couple of reasons for this: one is bloody-minded non-conformism¹; the other, more defensible reason, is that studies show² that aiming for “targets”, especially aggressive ones set without experience, tend to lead to failure and frustration. I do, however, often set “intentions” or “focuses” - not benchmarks that I want to hit, but areas that I want to intentionally spend more energy on in the coming year.

This year, one focus will be “consistency”. This primarily refers to building and maintaining habits - a practice that I’ve historically been pretty great at, but have let lapse in the last few years.

One habit I want to bring consistency to this year is writing. Dan Hon recently started a practice of writing 15 minutes on a topic in near stream-of-consciousness, just getting some thoughts down on (digital) paper. I like this for a couple of reasons:

• It encourages more freeform thinking and “clearing the pipe”
• It keeps up the consistency of writing - both as a discipline to be practiced, and as a journalling practice to identify and keep track of trends or recurrences.

This is the first of my posts in a similar style. Everything here was written in 15 minutes or less (with extra time allowed for footnoting and referencing - preserving “write time” as uninterrupted), and it and future similar posts will be tagged with #short-thoughts if you want to filter them out

Finish what I start

On the topic of consistency, my partner pointed out late last year that I’ve developed a propensity to simply stop consuming media (typically, though not always, TV) that I’m still very much enjoying, for no apparent reason. Shortlists off the top of my head:

• Sandman
• Clone Wars
• Undone
• Primal
• Venture Bros.
• The Sopranos
• Succession
• Adventure Time (technically - I love it, but haven’t yet tracked down episodes that were released since I watched the finale)
• Drama High
• The Boys
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Completed on 2023-01-25 - after I’d compiled this list, but before publishing this post)
• Foundation
• Sense8

Which is not to say that there’s any shame in stopping a particular piece intentionally. I long ago realize that the ratio of “time you have available to consume media” vs. “time it would take to consume all available media (even if everyone stopped making new art today)” is effectively zero, and so you should aggressively drop media that doesn’t seem to be worth your time. That’s not applicable in these cases, though, as I was enjoying these things, and then just…stopped.

I’ve also let my “Currently Reading” list on Trello grow to a dishonest length - you can’t really be simultaneously “reading” seven different books, especially if you haven’t picked up several of them in a year! My personal tech projects backlog is similarly disorganized - I’ve properly lost track of what’s still underway, what’s been de facto abandoned, and what’s been completed (and what dependency projects that then opens up). Other projects - domestic stuff, for instance - is similarly scattered.

So another consistency-related habit I’ll be concentrating on this year is on “finishing what I start” - staying focused on one piece of media of a given type³, or project, at a time. I’m also long overdue for a process re-evaluation and overaul for GTD, making sure I have my projects clearly enumerated and at least one next step identified.

Phewf, nearly exactly 15 minutes.

• short-thoughts