multijimbo

The turn of one (Gregorian) year to another is traditionally a time from resolutions, for taking stock of the previous year and thinking forward to the year to come. I’m typically not much minded towards resolutions, but I have been known to indulge from time to time.

But I’m also aware that I have a tendency, which I’ve had since I was a much younger person, of having eyes bigger than my stomach. That is, I make plans more extensive than the available time allows.

This has a clear result, that my lists of things to do get longer, longer beyond my ability to do them given all of the everything else that life and work require.

Some long time ago, I heard the story of someone whose email inbox had gotten out of control. Too many unread emails. Too many notifications of things requiring their attention. And so they declared email bankruptcy. They deleted the whole of their inbox and sent out a message to everyone, basically saying, if you were waiting on a response then you need to resend, because it’s all gone. Just, gone.

Perhaps it’s a true story, perhaps it’s apocryphal. It doesn’t matter, for the lesson it gives. The thought that occurred is, perhaps I need to do the same with the ever growing list of projects.

What’s interesting is that my list of projects is an internal thing. They are my projects, and so it’s not the same as deleting the expectations of others. Rather, I have to think, which of these things, some of which I’ve carried with me for years, some of which I’ve carried for decades, which do I say, no more. No more attention. No more time.

Like a proper bankruptcy, it’s going to require some time, to sort through them and make the necessary decisions. But I think the time has come. More to follow.

~ by Jim Anderson on 17 December 2023.

Posted in bizarre and random things, mathematics, writing ephemera