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Follow-through
Apr. 23rd, 2026 10:38 amI'm slowly getting my act together. Following through with a lot of those "I should probably do (x)" thoughts and doing them instead of just pondering whether they're a neat idea or not. I mean, these are not mind-blowingly life-altering or anything, just stuff that comes to mind that I'm interested in doing. The non-writing creative stuff, the reading habits, and so on. There's still a long way to go, but this is the tough part: getting started in the first place and remembering that not everything needs to be dialed to eleven. I've become far too versed in the Making Huge Plans part of it but never quite following through for one reason or another or having them fizzle out on me.
I've also acknowledged that part of doing this is to combat the Ooh Shiny easiness of being perpetually glued to one's phone. Dopamine hit aside, when your work break is only ten minutes, it's easier to check your feeds than pull out a book that you'll need to put down after a few pages anyway. I probably could pull it off easier if I was still working from home, like I did in the past. That's obviously not doable now, so I have to be a bit more creative by reminding myself how I pulled it off with my other positions over the years. This is why I've been playing Squaredle instead of rechecking said feeds.
The funny thing is that I'm also allowing myself those moments of minor obsession. I could be reading my TBR pile at the end of the night but instead I've been reading comics. I'm allowing that because it occurs to me that I'm finding myself paying more attention to styles and forms of storytelling with that medium as of late instead of reading novels and music biographies. (Though I really should start balancing that out more.) I'm treating this as discovering new inspiration and influence in unexpected places instead of forcing it out of the same locations all the time.
Mind you, the new location for the current day job does allow more low-stakes brain power and a LOT less stress, and I'm in the process of dialing it back to everyone else's level of dedication. I'm still reminding myself that if I keep this Do All The Things mindset I'm only going to keep exhausting myself physically and mentally, and my new coworkers will end up leaving me with all the responsibility. There's a delicate balance between knowing how to do things others might not know about (or have access to) and doing everyone else's job, and I think that was an error I made at the other shop. My coworkers do their jobs and don't slack off, but nor are they rushing around trying to do it all at once, and I need to allow myself to do that as well.
I've also acknowledged that part of doing this is to combat the Ooh Shiny easiness of being perpetually glued to one's phone. Dopamine hit aside, when your work break is only ten minutes, it's easier to check your feeds than pull out a book that you'll need to put down after a few pages anyway. I probably could pull it off easier if I was still working from home, like I did in the past. That's obviously not doable now, so I have to be a bit more creative by reminding myself how I pulled it off with my other positions over the years. This is why I've been playing Squaredle instead of rechecking said feeds.
The funny thing is that I'm also allowing myself those moments of minor obsession. I could be reading my TBR pile at the end of the night but instead I've been reading comics. I'm allowing that because it occurs to me that I'm finding myself paying more attention to styles and forms of storytelling with that medium as of late instead of reading novels and music biographies. (Though I really should start balancing that out more.) I'm treating this as discovering new inspiration and influence in unexpected places instead of forcing it out of the same locations all the time.
Mind you, the new location for the current day job does allow more low-stakes brain power and a LOT less stress, and I'm in the process of dialing it back to everyone else's level of dedication. I'm still reminding myself that if I keep this Do All The Things mindset I'm only going to keep exhausting myself physically and mentally, and my new coworkers will end up leaving me with all the responsibility. There's a delicate balance between knowing how to do things others might not know about (or have access to) and doing everyone else's job, and I think that was an error I made at the other shop. My coworkers do their jobs and don't slack off, but nor are they rushing around trying to do it all at once, and I need to allow myself to do that as well.
