So I’ve discussed before my issue with staying focused. And I’ve come to realize that a huge part of that is me being a social butterfly and desperate for interaction. I have a lot of contacts and groups, and even the ones I’m not really active in often linger for long periods before I finally close them
Discord in particular doesn’t make this easier, given the total inability to sort the contacts/DMs list to keep certain important people in key places, nor the ability to easily export logs. I mean, better than in 2004 when logs had to be manually saved in every chat, but it is still a pain that they exist only in their walled garden.
But aside from that, the problem is just…keeping all these plates spinning. And while talking is fine, I think I’ve ended up in a rut where I talk about things with a lot of people, and that is time better spent DOING the things instead.
I’m going to start cutting back on the chats I’m active in, and probably eventually some of them will just get cut entirely. I’m also, regrettably, going to have to be less attuned to contacting people directly; just keeping those plates moving just gets too draining sometimes. I’m unsure how to keep friends with some people without contacting them, but…I also can’t be running out all the time to make sure. This is TBD. People are of course free to reach out to me.
Workflow streamlining is happening; multiple virtual Windows desktops is helping as well as some notification blockers, and focus stuff. And just making sure I set goals and actually keep to them. I’ve made progress but there’s more to be done.
Another problem that friends have raised is that I will assume the stuff they want will keep forever, and that’s not the case. This is a stickier problem, but a big part of it is my adding things into the queue ahead of the back, and making them wait. I am going to be working hard to prevent this, as it’s not fair for them to wait on me. I may ask people for external policing on this in some areas; accountability buddies are good!
I’m also getting more interested in software that is easier to switch between and such, FOSS is much more a thing for me now. I mourn the death of Creative Internet in favor of Corporate Walled Garden Internet, but…that’ll be a later topic.
We’ll see what happens from here, but I’m feeling better than I have in a while.
If you have suggestions, fire them off to blogsquawk@vershaft.com
-Arrow