Experiment #3: 750 Words (Day 1)

As usual, I have been thinking a lot lately, about what it means to "get things done." This kind of thinking tends to lead me to list-making, excitement over the possibilities available to me, and indecision. After a few conversations with friends, I have been able to draw the following conclusions:

1) The number one cause of failure to "get things done" is not doing them.
2) Most people who fail to get things done fail because they confuse thoughts and emotions.
3) When people confuse thoughts and emotions, or when they get too mired down in either one, a substantial amount of time and energy is spent on not doing the things that they set out to do in the first place.
4) Time is a problem. Some of us work better with deadlines; others are crippled by them.
5) None of these things are really problems; they just require a bit of retraining.

Now, of course I am oversimplifying things, but there is a point to all of this. Time is flexible, based on our perception. When we enjoy doing something, it feels like a never-ending, magical time filled with unicorns and rainbows and free candy. When we don't enjoy something, it feels like ten years spent in a prison camp, and we look back on magical times as temporary but lovely flashes in the pan. I'm not even referring to a battle between Exotic Travel Adventure and Garbage Picking; we feel these exaggerated opposites in a mundane fight like Watching A Movie vs. Doing the Dishes, too. [By the way, it also holds true that we will work ourselves to death and call it "fun" in the name of some preconceived notion of success.] In other words, we are often profoundly stupid in our pursuit of happiness.

I'm not really sure what the cure is, but I do know that setting the bar a bit higher for one's own frustration tolerance and honest introspection must have something to do with it. Know thyself...blah blah blah. In the spirit of self-awareness, I signed up for 750 words, a journaling site with a twist. The site design is clean and simple. Sign up and sign in via Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo!, or OpenID, and you'll see your journal page for the day, as well as a monthly archive. Days on which you fulfill the 750-word quota are marked as completed. Drop-down menus reveal a number of interesting options, my favorite of which is "Stats." Click on it, and you will see a mind-boggling analysis of your writing: a graph of words per minute, ratings--my first entry was PG-13, emotional content, mindset, time orientation, primary sense explored, frequently used words, etc. You have options to share--or not--these stats in part or whole. OH HELLS YES...I just found out that I can track metadata, too. I'll have to use this to add in sleep hours and quality, and compare it to mood. The possibilities are endless.

Basically, this is stream-of-conscious journaling for nerds, and how. I'll be checking in daily with tips, tricks, ideas, and occasional stats. If you're interested in getting in on this experiment, head over to 750 words and start writing!