I’ve finally moved into a period of my life where I can set guardrails around my slack without sacrificing the things I care about most. I currently am pushing it to the limit, doing work during work hours, and not doing work outside work hours. I’m eating very regularly, 9am, 2pm, 7pm. I’m going to sleep around 9-10, and getting up early. I have time to pick up my hobby of classical music.
At the same time, I’m also restricting the ability of my phone to steal my attention. All social media is blocked except for 2 hours on Saturday, which is going quite well. I’ve found Tristan Harris’s advice immensely useful—my phone is increasingly not something that I give all of my free attention to, but instead something I give deliberate attention and then stop using. Tasks, not scrolling.
Now I have weekends and mornings though, and I’m not sure what to do with myself. I am looking to get excited about something, instead of sitting, passively listening to a comedy podcast while playing a game on my phone. But I realise I don’t have easy alternative options—Netflix is really accessible. I suppose one of the things that a Sabbath is supposed to be is an alarm, showing that something is up, and at the minute I’ve not got enough things I want to do for leisure that don’t also feel a bit like work.
So I’m making lists of things I might like (cooking, reading, improv, etc) and I’ll try those.
So I’m making lists of things I might like (cooking, reading, improv, etc) and I’ll try those
This comment is a bit interesting in terms of it’s relation to this old comment of yours (about puzzlement over cooking being a source of slack)
I realize this comment isn’t about cooking-as-slack per se, but curious to hear more about your shift in experience there (since before it didn’t seem like cooking as a thing you did much at all)
Try practicing doing nothing I.e. meditation and see how that goes. When I have nothing particular to do my mind needs some time to make the switch from that mode where it tries to distract itself by coming up with new things it wants to do until finally it reaches a state where it is calm and steady. I consider that state the optimal one to be in since only then my thoughts are directed deliberately at neglected and important issues rather than exercising learned thought patterns.
I think you’re missing me with this. I’m not very distractable and I don’t need to learn to be okay with leisure time. I’m trying to actually have hobbies, and realising that is going to take work.
I could take up meditation as a hobby, but at the minute I want things that are more social and physical.
I’ve finally moved into a period of my life where I can set guardrails around my slack without sacrificing the things I care about most. I currently am pushing it to the limit, doing work during work hours, and not doing work outside work hours. I’m eating very regularly, 9am, 2pm, 7pm. I’m going to sleep around 9-10, and getting up early. I have time to pick up my hobby of classical music.
At the same time, I’m also restricting the ability of my phone to steal my attention. All social media is blocked except for 2 hours on Saturday, which is going quite well. I’ve found Tristan Harris’s advice immensely useful—my phone is increasingly not something that I give all of my free attention to, but instead something I give deliberate attention and then stop using. Tasks, not scrolling.
Now I have weekends and mornings though, and I’m not sure what to do with myself. I am looking to get excited about something, instead of sitting, passively listening to a comedy podcast while playing a game on my phone. But I realise I don’t have easy alternative options—Netflix is really accessible. I suppose one of the things that a Sabbath is supposed to be is an alarm, showing that something is up, and at the minute I’ve not got enough things I want to do for leisure that don’t also feel a bit like work.
So I’m making lists of things I might like (cooking, reading, improv, etc) and I’ll try those.
This comment is a bit interesting in terms of it’s relation to this old comment of yours (about puzzlement over cooking being a source of slack)
I realize this comment isn’t about cooking-as-slack per se, but curious to hear more about your shift in experience there (since before it didn’t seem like cooking as a thing you did much at all)
Try practicing doing nothing I.e. meditation and see how that goes. When I have nothing particular to do my mind needs some time to make the switch from that mode where it tries to distract itself by coming up with new things it wants to do until finally it reaches a state where it is calm and steady. I consider that state the optimal one to be in since only then my thoughts are directed deliberately at neglected and important issues rather than exercising learned thought patterns.
I think you’re missing me with this. I’m not very distractable and I don’t need to learn to be okay with leisure time. I’m trying to actually have hobbies, and realising that is going to take work.
I could take up meditation as a hobby, but at the minute I want things that are more social and physical.