A Good Imagination and a Pile of Junk

I need a reminder.  Between A.D.D. and it’s associated effluvia, I get and stay off track very easily.

I thought about having some kind of interruptive reminder application that would beep or popup or something.  But that doesn’t make sense.

Then I thought that it might make sense to have a sign reminding me, when I looked up (or “noticeably though not disruptively close to my focal point”) to at least be mindful of what i was doing.

Being me I let the idea germinate a bit and I realized there were a couple/few things I need big bold reminders of.

Sparing you the rest of my fragmented internal dialog, here’s the deal strongly and simply stated:

I went to RiteAid and bought 4 8.5″x11″ frames (at $3.99 each) and I printed 4 signs, which I’ve posted.  They’re in time order.  You’ll see what I mean.

1. Let It Go This is the past.  It’s also things about what I’m working on that are bloody irrelevant meaning “everything that’s happened until now.” When you’ve got something to do the only two things you have are the situation or thing which needs work and it’s next state of completion.  Dwelling on the past is neither relevant nor productive.  The motives for doing so are at BEST suspect, frequently serving to keep something in stasis through procrastination or worse.
2. What Now? Now.  Right Now.  What are you doing?  Why? (rolls in to what.)   Know where you are, what you’re doing and what you expect from that action.  IF YOU DO NOT then your current action bloody well ought to be “Figure Out What Now.”  It’s simple really.  This was the first sign I wanted to put up.
3. What Next? So What Now is done, you lean back in your chair.  There’s only one question.  What next?  It’s the next What Now and nothing more.  It’s good to plan these in advance.  Other people are better at describing (and implementing) that process than I am.
4. What Then? Where are you going? Why are you doing what you’re doing?  I almost phrased this as “To What End?” and who knows, I may yet.  If you don’t have something you’re working towards then you’re dithering away your life on minutia.  Stop it.  Someone wiser than I said “Make No Small Plans.”  This is that.  Do that.

These scale well.

Here’s my desktop from 45 minutes ago (click to embiggen):

UPDATE: Hmmpf. Apparently while TwitPic has a “put this pic on your own site” feature, they only put the thumbnail. Fair enough. Click it for the big version.

Tags: SIP

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 8:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, diy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.