Categorized (try) todo lists

Good morning!

My rebooted attempt at time tracking fizzled out. I wasn’t able to get back into the habit of recording the hours, which made for incomplete data, which—to someone deeply motivated by complete datasets—diminished my desire to continue.

But there was something important in that time tracking: I tracked not only work, but also time spent on household tasks and socially. In the spirit of “what’s measured matters” (waving aside all the issues with measurement and mattering), I tracked categories like these because they were important elements of a full, well-rounded life.

So the tracking isn’t sticking—I’m accepting that. But the categories were valuable, marking where and how I meant to spend my time. In that spirit, I’ve started writing “(try) todo” lists, organized into categories like (in today’s list) “computer”, “errands”, “house”, “social”, and “woodworking”.

These categories differ from my old ones, focusing more on where and how I spend my time. For example, I’m trying to be more intentional about screen time (especially on weekends). Today, I aim to get most of my computer-ing done this morning, to then spend the rest of the day mostly off-screen—the “computer” category makes that possibility legible.

The list is helpful, too, for its refocusing effect: I just caught myself browsing a site that didn’t really fit the list (and then, after writing that sentence, another one…). I’m not beating myself up for it, but the list is a helpful nudge back toward the little goals I’ve set for the day.

Anyhow, with that, let’s move toward completing today’s Hit and Miss goal of sharing some fine links with your fine selves:

• Brian Merchant draws parallels between the recent American dockworkers strike and the Luddites, celebrating their Ludditism for the power it returns to those who do the work.
• “The economy” can feel like some big, far-off thing, but acting locally can bring the economy home, making it familiar, something you can name and rely upon. (Great short post on how acting and buying locally builds community resilience.)
• Speaking of resilience, Sara Hendren quotes Dougald Hine on climate resilience, outlining two ways of approaching climate change—one big, one small.
• A solar-powered, self-hosted personal site (with a nod to Low-tech Magazine, who have a great guide on building a solar system). What I appreciate most here is the interrogation of whether websites really need to always be online, and the hugely detrimental hosting costs of doing so.
• Mandy Brown questions what lies beneath the phrase “I have to [do X]”—how it obfuscates power in the workplace (or outside it), yes, but also how doing so diminishes our own agency, and weakens our own practice of recognizing what we want or think right. As someone who’s long felt that I “don’t know what I want”, this short post unlocked something in me.
• Turns out Ursula K. Le Guin was a big fan of Springsteen (see the note at the end, after her excellent speech transcript). (I’m nearly done reading The Dispossessed, luxuriating in the contrasting details of the two worlds—or is it one?—that Le Guin constructed in that book.)
• The Verge did “2004 week”, writing about the tech and culture of 2004 in the style of 2004 websites. Like, for example, the iPod Mini (I didn’t have a Mini, but I eventually had one of the similarly-dimensioned Nanos—what a lovely size).
• Modern Plain Text Computing is a (currently ongoing!) sociology course on learning specific data tools, but also a “way of thinking” about data that’s very (very) valuable. The course materials are available online. Taught by Kieran Healy, co-author of The Ordinal Society, for which I’ve seen much praise recently.
• Links to the last XOXO talks have circulated the last few weeks; Andy Baio gathers and summarizes them in one place, along with his own goodbye reflection.

Okay, on to the rest of the computer-ing list. All the best for the week ahead!

Lucas