This is also somewhat a retrospective of 2023’s Year of Small Things.
I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. I am not sure I even really believe in goals anymore. I know Linda Maye Adams, a good friend of mine, does NOT do goals at all.
I follow a method of Yearly Themes I learned from the Cortex podcast. (The link is to 2023’s discussion of their themes, and has a lot of good links in there to learn more, especially this video). Basically, goals are either/or, binary things. You either achieve them or you don’t. And when you do them for year, you forget about them until the end when all you can do is fail.
It isn’t a New Year’s resolution, either. That’s where folks set up their Grand Plan too specifically (“I’m going to exercise every day!”) or too vaguely (“I’m going to get in shape!” with no way to tell when that would be achieved).
A Yearly Theme is more of a mindset you are choosing for yourself. Yes, it is done at New Year’s, but you can change it, adapt it, or add it to your life at literally any time when what you have isn’t working. By making it a mindset rather than milestones or task list checkboxes, you are shaping your thinking about what you want to do with your life. You almost can’t fail at it, because there aren’t really tasks per say to fail to do.
Example: Year of Health. If this is the mindset that is chosen, then every time you want to make a choice, you can hold it up to the Year of Health and ask yourself “Is this is line with that mindset?” You can still decide to take the day to lounge about playing Darktide or watching Netflix, but you are aware you are making that choice. You didn’t fail to exercise that day, you chose not to. Eventually, either you decide this mindset isn’t working and change it, or change your behaviors to match your mindset.
Goodbye, Year of Small Things
2023 was the Year of Small Things. My mindset was that there were a lot of small bits of time in my day that I could do something other than read social media (like breaks between meetings, for example) and be more productive in those moments. The goal was to fill them with as much writing related stuff as possible.
It didn’t quite work out that way.
But I didn’t fail, because I learned many things about myself and how I work:
- I need more than 10 minutes to really write in. I have to read what I’ve written, figure out the next step, etc. I’m not a “write a sentence here and there kind of writing” most of the time. (Sometimes it worked, but enough it didn’t that I won’t count on it).
- Works great for getting myself to start organizing and stop before I get overwhelmed.
- Task switching costs are VERY real. Sometimes it is best to just play a quick mindless phone game for a few minutes than it is to try and turn my brain from something mentally intense (like when I’ve just finished a task but need a timeout before I start the next one). I need to give my brain some free space.
- Those small blocks of time are also very good for just collecting my thoughts. I will write down some things, tasks to do, random ideas, bits of writing I may never use, just whatever is in there taking up space that needs clearing out.
- One of my best tricks for separating work from personal is that I have two desks: one for day job and day job computer, and one for personal stuff (writing, gaming, faffing about). The plan originally was to get up and switch computers, but I can’t do that for short periods of time (task switching costs). I can do it for a longer break (like lunch) or at the end of the day, but I don’t like getting away from my work computer for short bits unless I’m getting away from computers completely (like refilling my water or taking out the dogs). Just popping over to my personal desk felt like dragging the work day with me over there and that just felt icky.
Hello, Year of Process
So as you see, studying the process of how I work and do life things was started in the Year of Small Things. The Year of Process will develop that further.
The focus will be trying out different approaches, especially to the writing and the writing business. 2024 is where I go indie with much of my writing, and I need to study the process. What types of marketing work for me? What types of publications am I looking to do?
And to link back into Linda Maye Adam’s comment on her post about goals, how do I keep this all fun without losing the joy of the writing process?
It isn’t just about the writing either. What’s the process for not getting overwhelmed and overscheduled? What is the process for improving my health and happiness? What is the process for…well, everything life has in front of me?
And starting now, I’m going to study it, drop things out that don’t bring joy, like I am Konmari-ing how I do everything. I’m giving myself the freedom to explore, to focus on the journey and not the destination.