I’m concocting this crazy system of ideas in my head, and before I get too carried away with it I have to let you know that I’m doing this and it’ll most likely collapse under its own weight soon and disappear forever. Until then, it’s this big knot in my head. In some ways this is just an attempt to say that it existed at one point, even if it never ever sees light of day.
Okay, so.
Each of us has a bunch of roles that we play in life. Me, I’m a citizen, an worker, a friend, a husband, a son, a brother, and a private self to myself.
Each of these roles that I play have an ever-changing list of goals and responsibilities of varying importance. Take my worker role. I have a responsibility to commit a certain amount of time to that work. In my case, I’ve found that committing myself to being in a state of “work” by 10am (that doesn’t necessarily mean that I need to be at my desk typing code, it just means that I have to be engaged in my work at that time). On the other hand, simply being at a desk and “working” doesn’t necessarily fulfill the responsibility of the role. My work needs to be meaningful, creative, and sustaining. This means, in my case, that I should take a few minutes to ground myself by thinking about my energy, focus, enjoyment, and stress levels, my plan for the day, etc.
And then there’s the shifting importance of roles depending on the day.
In each of my roles, I live a day at a time, and every day those roles have different weights. For example, today is Friday, and it could be said that because I am working and because it is also Friday (where social pressure to go out is higher), I am 25% husband, 33% worker, 17% friend, and 8% citizen, son/brother, and private self. These percentages represent my dedication to fulfilling those roles, and while a work day might have a standard breakdown of commitment to roles, they could also shift slightly or drastically at times.
Some activities are responsibilities that have to be done, while others are goals that you would like to get done, and yet others still are things that might help improve the emotional, mental or physical state that you’re currently in.
Every day, then, there is my physical, mental, and emotional states to take into account. Even though I come in to work and want to work, unless a few core vital signs are stable, a few of my loftier goals should necessarily give way to the more core responsibilities. “Be in a state of work by 10am” is a responsibility I have to myself (I have to do it) while “writing down an aphorism” is a goal that, should my level of focus be too low, might move aside so that something more useful like “go on a walk” can take precedence.
Some activities are things that need to happen daily, others weekly or monthly.
Et cetera.
All of these factors can be handled in a couple different ways. The default way is to handle them intuitively. I have a mechanism in my brain that keeps track of how long it has been since I showered. I have to shower, pretty much daily, and when I don’t the importance of that activity goes up. Same with doing the bills, or getting meaningful work done. Then, there are the things we like to do when we’ve got extra time: catch up on a tv show, download a new iPhone game, get a drink. Then, there are the things we do to help us control our mental states like exercising, eating a snack, taking a walk.
The default way of handling all of this, intuitively, is a pretty great system. It works. It’s a little rough around the edges, things fall through the cracks, etc.
Why would I try to replace this system with a complex algorithm? One that was like:
All activities/goals/responsibilties in the system * day of week default role weights * optional changes to default role weights * current emotional/mental/physical state weights * any supplementary weights due to neglected responsibilities = ordered list of activities, goals, and responsibilities for the day with invisible point values that turn living life into an incredibly complex game.
Why indeed. It’s difficult to write software that works better than intuition. It’s why we all sometimes want to make a list of goals or to-dos for the day but most of the time we are perfectly fine simply remembering them.
I have to admit that I love the over-complicated nature of this system. It reminds me of Leonardo da Vince’s drawing of the first helicopter. Way wrong, totally impractical, but also sort of beautiful in its crudeness.
And, to be honest, I’m more interested in this system as a stunt than this system as a true improvement of the complexity of human motivation, emotions, and productivity. I guess I like feeling like I can sort of take the system apart, see the pieces, etc, rather than worrying about trying to put it all back together. But when I do put it back together, the Frankenstein’s monster-esque feel of it has a place in my aesthetic.
That felt good to get out. 
