Another Blog, Another Site Title

A bit of a useless description of how my drives change throughout the day

The activities that I want to do change throughout the day. Just before bed, I often want to take advantage of that bit of free time by making some progress on creative projects. However, I tend not to trust my mind enough to actively work on anything that I care about. I can ponder on it, but making changes to a complex codebase is something I would be less enticed to do.

If I actually sat down and started working on it, I would probably be successful for a good 10 minutes, until I started to fall asleep at my desk. I am most likely to not even start because I am afraid of falling asleep after going 5% through something. (It will probably need to be scrapped anyway?) However, if I actually gave it a shot and wrote a function, I would be able to create tangible progress which I know will come in handy in the future.

A task for me that takes lots of willpower, creativity, and produces a minimum amount of satisfaction in the short term is music production. Unlike writing code, which tends to lead to a feeling of accomplishment after each small chunk, music production has the inverse effect.

If I were to sit down while tired and work on 1 measure of a track, I would probably quickly get discouraged. Whatever I produced would most-likely be garbage, since I don’t have the willpower to put the effort into making it sound any good. Because (1) I only produced a small amount of the song, I feel unproductive, and because (2) what was produced did not meet my standards of quality, I will feel even more discouraged. Because of this, I will probably not come back to that track for a while.

However, if I can create about a minute of a track that actually sounds great, I will be more encouraged, and more-likely to come up with additional ideas, especially during a step-away period, like a jog. The latest something like this is capable of happening it 8:30 PM.

Going backward in time, the hour after work finishes is a great time to shut off my brain and work on chores. In this time, I can rest the brain but still feel productive. I gather accomplishment from getting something done that I wouldn’t jump for joy at doing when I first woke up. However, after work, I usually have limited willpower for creative activities like music production or software development.

Now I start talking about work

During and after lunch is the laziest time of the day. It is a time to indulge in the first non-fruit meal of the day. This is also the time when I am probably watching some sort of video online while eating. Because I want to get my exercise time in, I will probably be doing some sort of in-place movement while watching, which tends to soak up 30 minutes at least. The prospect of switching from this mindless motion back to work is daunting, and often is the most jarring 30 minutes of the day.

While working, the hour right before lunch is a mixed bag of emotions. On one hand, I am the most involved in work that I will be the whole day. The coffee has kicked in completely and I am focused and getting as much done as possible. This usually involves switching between and knocking out several tasks at once. However, at the same time, I am also hungry and fighting the urge to descend into the indulgence of lunch.

Ahh, morning! Of course, getting out of bed is difficult, but only while you are in bed. Once you are fully awake, you will forget that it was ever any trouble at all. For me, the morning is the prime time of the day for anything that takes critical thinking and creativity. If I wake up around 7 for work, I have to turn off my brain and become a machine. Once I open up my curtains and log in, I will quickly be at full capacity.

Non-workdays

If it isn’t a work day, I will be even more excited to wake up. This is where progress finally gets done on software projects and sometimes music. If only this was everyday! However, as of recent, this has only been on Sundays. I hope for this kind of quality alone time to increase in the future. For some reason, my only standard of value and productivity in my life is how many of these personal projects I get done — not how much money I make, what kind of job I have, what relationship I have, whether or not I ever have kids. How can I advance with humanity with a mindset such as this?

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P.S. It’s worth noting that excitement for something later that day also drives my creativity. So if I have the proper amount of alone time in the morning, it will be enhanced knowing that I will catch up with someone in the afternoon.