Month: May 2026

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I Should Have Easy Days from Time to Time

I’ve obviously discussed the importance of not getting burnt out, and easing off the throttle when I’m feeling worn out.

But a proactive approach might be considerably more effective.

I think that sometimes (as much as every week or two), I should have a day where I have very little planned and don’t feel the need to be super productive. I can just do whatever I feel like doing.

I have a tendency to load up my to-do list if it looks like the day is going to be pretty easy. I want to capture as much productivity as I can every single day.

But if I do that every day… It just sort of feels mechanical. Like I’m a machine whose only purpose is productivity, and like I need to fill all of my time.

Neither things are true.

The biggest thing is that I don’t ever want to feel like I’m lacking in time. I want it to always feel like a plentiful resource.

I think when I have a day where I have almost nothing planned and can just do whatever I want, it sort of resets that sense in my mind that time is scarce.

Which, in turn, I suspect greatly reduces anxiety among other things.

So today wasn’t too difficult. I’ll get some house and yard things done anyway, but they don’t sound bad at all so I’ll still have fun.

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What are we Escaping From?

I came to the conclusion today that most entertainment we consume is actually just a form of escapism. We’re no longer watching artistic films or reading deep novels to try to gleam some deeper understanding of life or truly improve ourselves and our lives.

We’re just trying to escape.

From what, exactly? That’s the question!

I think most of the time it’s a feeling. It’s anxiety, stress, worry, or just an unsettling feeling of meaninglessness.

And it might work for a bit, but doesn’t do anything long term to actually resolve the underlying issues.

And I just feel like it’s kind of sad when you take a step back. We’re escaping from our lives when we could be living them. We could be making them better or working on something meaningful in our own lives. But instead, on average, supposedly people spend something like 8 hours per day on entertainment. Most of which, it seems to me, is pretty much meaningless.

That is, of course, not to say that all entertainment is bad or even that meaningless entertainment should never be consumed.

But I do think they need to be greatly limited in the modern context.

We live in a time period when people are totally disconnected from the output of their work. They don’t feel their jobs have meaning.

Add on to that the fact that most people have no real hobbies, and you end with a culture that really lacks any meaning.

And of course, this compounds on itself. You feel anxious about the lack of purpose, you seek to quiet that part of your mind, you scroll social media or throw on Netflix, you don’t connect with others or work on your hobby. The cycle continues.

I’m not sure what to do about this other than try to greatly limit my consumption of media, particularly empty, meaningless media and entertainment.

I can’t control the culture or other people but I can at least try to limit my own consumption.

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I Need to Write About Anything I’m Thinking About Consistently

I realized today that there are tons of things just sort of… Swirling around in my mind at any given time, and it feels a bit like I’m putting in a monumental effort to simply keep them in a sort of queue.

I think there is a cost associated with any effort of that nature, and over time, it really starts to bog down my brain.

I’m sure I’ve read about the legitimacy of such a thought and, from what I understand, it is actually valid.

The solution?

For anything that has popped up in my head or that I feel like I’m trying to hold on to: write about it! Here.

I’ll come back to it.

The moment I write about it, a bit of a weight is lifted. I no longer need to remember it. Obviously, for some things, they need to “cook” for a bit and those are going to stay in my head for a while.

But for other things, I just need to dedicate some actual time to sit and write about it, to put in the thought required to resolve it, and then either act on it if applicable or forget about it.

And that’s it.

It makes no sense to be dragging all sorts of mental baggage around with me all the time, scattering my attention, focus, and brainpower.

I think it’s important to come to this blog almost every day and write about, really, whatever is on my mind.

Things that are seeking some kind of resolution will get there faster, things that require action will come to the surface and become actionable, and things that I’m ruminating on will be given enough thought to resolve and then forget.

Like in many areas of my life, I think my threshold for quality is too high. I have this idea that I shouldn’t do something at all unless it’s great.

But this blog is almost entirely for me. I don’t need every post to be incredible. Sometimes it’s just about writing it.

And I’m arguing now that, for many things, the main value is in writing it and getting it out of my head.

So going forward, I want to be way more open to just word vomit and spilling out my brain into blog posts with no specific purpose.

The quality might go down but the clarity of my thinking is likely to improve. And that’s the important thing.