The Drawing Board

I wrote about this a couple of weeks back, but I've been using my recent life changes to bring about a "return to form," if you will. This may seem like a tangent, but stay with me.

Earlier this year, I went to see Demetri Martin perform stand-up, and after the show he came back out and talked with the audience for an hour. One of his stories was talking about how since he's such a geek and wanted to live his life to the fullest, he had actually devised a "point system" for his day-to-day life. He made a list of things he would like to do more, and things that made him happy, and assigned each one a point value. He would spend every day trying to acquire as many points as he could. Not because they were worth anything as far as the rest of the world is concerned, but because he could look back over his days with fulfillment.

That idea resonated very deeply with me. I function much better with anything in my life if there's some kind of system in place. I've also been very "play" motivated. I like to turn mundane things into little games for myself, otherwise I will not be inclined to do them. It's sort of a personal frailty. But I always find myself sitting at home after work, thinking "What should I do tonight?" Then by the time I have an idea, it's usually too late in the evening to act on it. So I'll swear at myself for wasting another day, and then end up doing it again the next day. I decided this type of behavior has to stop. I am always too fixated on the future and I forget to enjoy every day, because at the end when I'm looking back, that's all I'm really going to have is those memories.

A month or so ago I did something very similar to Demetri Martin. I took a personal inventory of all the things I like. Hobbies, people I like to spend time with, places I like to go, stuff I need to catch up on (reading/TV shows/games). I'm even talking about things I haven't done in years, like lap swimming or sketching or taking a bike trip. I put them all in an Excel table and wrote down the date (usually an approximate) for the last time I did that item. I also gave each one a timeframe, whether it was something I could do in a couple of hours (like after work), if it took all day, or if it took a full weekend.

I sorted it so that the thing I've done the longest ago is always at the top. Then I go down the list until I find one that corresponds with how much free time I have at that moment. Yesterday I noticed with the help of this chart that I haven't gone on a photography excursion for many months. So, I called my dad, and I set one up. And just like that, I had some adventure again. If left to my own devices, I probably would have just sat around all day. And yes, I realize I'm a nerd.

The last couple of years I've felt as though I've been losing my grip on who I am. I'm determined not to let that happen, and cheesy though it may sound, I hope this list is going to help me keep things in perspective and balance my life out again. Sometimes it's the simple things that make all the difference.

And by the way, the reason that I haven't written for a couple weeks is simple. Lia and I broke up, so I took some time off from the Blogosphere. (I hate that word.) There were a lot of reasons for it, but I don't really want to get into that. Unfortunately, we just signed that lease on our apartment, so we are stuck there until next June.