The log for my first day of detailed timekeeping is up.
Approximate time on the internet: 2 hours 15 minutes.
“ooh now this is a dangerous idea… I should try it!”
Is it responsible for a person with my controlling and obsessive tendancies to log everything he does at a high level of granularity?
I’m checking my watch so often I’ve developed tennis elbow.
But it’s great!
Wow, is it ever great! I don’t think I’ve ever had such a productive day!
Here’s what I didn’t realize:
If you’re auditing your time in 15 minute intervals, it’s tough to waste big blocks of time.
You can’t surf for 15 minutes. If you do, you’re going to have to admit you wasted the block. You’re going to have to put down that all you did was surf the net.
You can’t read dime store novels on the can for an hour. Well, you can, but you’ll have to say you did.
It’s impossible to lose track of time.
Now… Fair disclosure: Part of the deal I made with Shaun was that we wouldn’t cheat. We agreed we’d live just as we normally live. We wouldn’t change our patterns or activities just because we knew there were eyeballs on us.
I don’t think I’ve been cheating, but I will admit to suffering an enormous amount of pressure to do things that are respectable. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this much incentive to be virtuous.
There’s a little discussion that goes on in my head.
“You’re cheating, Scott. Usually you wouldn’t be working this hard.”
“Look, every day I intend to do the stuff that I’m doing today. I just don’t get around to it.”
“You’re cheating – you’re not surfing the net enough.”
“I’m just following through on my plan – the only difference is that I’m better at it today. Alright?”
“Yes but your hours are dishonestly skewed in the direction of virtue.”
“What – so I should deliberately procrastinate just because I usually do?”
“You know you want to. You know you should.”
I think I’ll have to follow up on this point, because there’s meat in it. I’m undergoing severe accountability shock.
But that doesn’t mean I did the dishes tonight.
4 Responses to "Obsession"
Ah- finally I get to indulge in watching reality T.V.- um blog.
And I’m squelching the impulse to nag- after all- I’d actually find out if it got done or not.
Do you think the Language Team would submit to this? Bet it only works if done for one’s own edification.
If it’s imposed by someone else, the word is hypermicroawareness and you’re spot on… It just ain’t so effective.
Yeah, these thoughts are why this is such a dangerous idea – my fear of embarrassment is definitely a limiting factor for me to do this! The thing about a job is that for a good third of the day you have built in virtue potential. When your main occupation is on going, nebulous, and prevents you from doing anything that allows focused concentration for any length of time – 1) how good can it sound? and 2) There is lots of opportunity for non-virtuous activity. This is why I should give it all a try
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Hmm… I’ll have to do a post retracting my sloppy use of the word, ‘virtue’.
I’m afraid this experiment lies squarely in the realm of behaviour modification. We’ll see.