A New Policy

I have what you would call a flaky personality. I pick up a lot of projects and interests and abandon them just as quickly for other projects and interests. I am especially guilty of this when it comes to books, I start a lot of them but finish only a tiny fraction of that. Because my goals and projects are constantly shifting, nothing gets done.

I realized that especially with two recent events. The first was reading Wittgenstein's Tractatus. About halfway through I began to lose interest and started looking for something else to read, but, thank God, I could not focus on anything. I realized at that moment that whenever I abandoned one text I was reading for no reason apart from my mind losing focus, I devalued every book I might read wherein my mind might lose focus (all of them). I was perpetuating a policy of not finishing anything that couldn't be done all in one go.

The second was finishing my "Do I Exist" blog in its entirety. After revising it and coming to a different conclusion the second time around, I began to fear that I did not have ample grounding or knowledge to finish it to my satisfaction. It should be noted that I only felt that way after a day of not working on the paper, as long as I was working on it, I felt confident enough. Other projects began to come up in my mind until I decided that I could do nothing until I finished that blog.

Based on these two experiences, I have two new policies.

1. If a project is undertaken, it should be pursued to its completion with as few rest days as possible. The more time spent at rest the more unappealing the project begins to appear.

2. Finish all projects undertaken, unless it is decided that one does not want to complete the project at all. Projects must never be put off for another time, if I intend to complete it in my lifetime, it must be completed now.

I'm curious to see if I become any more productive with these new self-imposed rules.