alexandraerin

I realized today, while wondering how I made it to the end of the week once again without managing to build up a back-log of stories, that the problem is that activities expand to fill the space allocated for them. When I was trying to write three chapters a week, I often succeeded. The weeks where I didn't are why I decided to dial it back to two a week until I've built a back log.

The problem is that I didn't set up a schedule or goals to write more... I've only held myself to writing a chapter for the beginning of the week and one for the end of the week.

So my new goals are going to be write a chapter for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with separate goals to post a chapter Tuesday and Friday. This requires a substantial adjustment in my thinking. And I'm also not going to jump right into it, because next week is Wiscon and I have other things that need finishing before the end of the month. But in the long term I think it'll provide another step forward.

In any event, while I am looking back at the month and going, "Where did it go?", I can at least look at the Tales of MU archive for the month and go, "Yep, I did good."

1. While it's important to listen to people you're in a relationship when, it's also important to tell them when you can't grasp what they're trying to tell you. Functionally, there is no difference between having listened to something you know you didn't understand and not having listened in the first place.

2. Pepsi Max Cease Fire goes down smoother than regular Pepsi Max, but that doesn't mean it should be consumed like a regular soda, particularly by someone who drinks as much as I do and had otherwise weaned herself to mostly drink caffeine-free beverages. (In fact, it might have more caffeine than regular Pepsi Max).

3. Taking the time and energy to explain to someone why you're not going to be engaging with them is, if anything, more exhausting and counterproductive than engaging with them. If I'm going to follow through with anything I'm trying to do with my life--personally, professionally, whateverally--I need to first follow through on my plan to be ruthless, shameless, and selfish in guarding my time and my spoons. It's not that I don't think I owe anybody anything... but what I owe to the world and to myself is not a defense of myself or any amount of my time. It's to exercise the talent I'm given, to entertain and enlighten or just distract anyone who cares to be entertained or enlightened or just distracted.

3b. I need to say all that to myself as often as it takes, because it works when I do.