Whither Meta?

The recent dearth of blogging in this space is less the result of a conscious decision to blog less than it is an epiphenomenon of my New Year's Resolution to keep a rigorous calendar. Part of this regime is a daily module for scheduling each subsequent day's agenda. And, turns out, when you deliberately schedule the modules of activity for each day, it's difficult to justify a general "blogging" module. (Try it, you'll see.)

So where does that leave Meta? Well, as it happens, another part of my New Year's Resolution is to make a New Month's Resolution each month. So, for instance, Daily Scheduling was February's NMR. My NMR for March will be to determine how to make productive use of this blog. And "productive" will not encompass fish-in-a-barrel topics like religion, culture war stuff, political hackery, media dysfunction, etc. Instead, I will focus on areas in which I want to develop expertise, viz., selected areas in philosophy, music and lyric writing, maybe a smattering of law and other topics.

Until March, then, I'd expect the same pattern of blogging (in)activity to continue...

UPDATE: Bill Gardner asks (in a comment below) about how well this scheduling business has turned out. I thought I'd answer here, in case it's of general interest.

The answer is: So far, so good. Keeping a detailed* calendar helps me keep track of and stay on track with complex and ever-changing practice and writing routines, not to mention of/with the garden variety personal and business appointments (and., what's most appreciated by the Missus,...chores!), in a way I don't think would otherwise be possible.

I think key to maintaining this sort of approach is to have a module (I call it "Calendar and Prep") for going over and finalizing the next day's events. After I've done that I print out a hard copy for easy reference, and in case I need to keep track of things away while mobile; I also hand-write my tasks next to my "To-Do" module.** The "prep" part is just any kind of preparation next day's activities require: printing out maps for or directions to appointment locations, making a protein shake for the morning workout, whatev.

Calendar and Prep is the time all the stuff I've got to get to is staring at me there on the page, and I have figure out how to fit it all in, if possible. So, for instance, I have three different vocal routines ("V1" "V2" "V3"). I've set them up as daily repeating events. Maybe tomorrow I've got a recording session which overlaps with V3. So maybe I shorten each of V1-V3 and redistribute them throughout the earlier part of the day. Or maybe I just drop V3. Or maybe the overlap is an appointment that requires a lengthy drive, so I can schedule V2 for the drive out and V3 for the drive back.

If this all sounds a little too regimented, keep in mind that I routinely deviate from the schedule in small ways -- to make a call, say, or...to answer a comment. I try to be deliberate about it, and decide what it is on the schedule that has to give. (In the instant case, composing this update is cutting into my "Language Log" time -- time I spend plucking at the lines of selected literature and logging whatever language I might be able to use later to generate, or to just plain steal for use as, lyrical ideas. [I hope it was worth it, Bill!]) Of course I also "schedule" down-time, and always reserve the right to ditch any and all events for the day, as long as doing so seems warranted (which, on the other hand, may be a little too flexible for someone with a lazy streak like mine...). But even with imperfect conformity to the schedule, I seem to be far more productive than I have been when using a less detailed schedule (not to mention with using no schedule at all).

By the way, Cognitive Daily recently queried its readers about how they manage their calendars, and commenters outline some of their approaches in the comment thread. For those interested, that post is here.

Okay, time to return to my regularly scheduled...er, schedule.
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NOTES

*I have 16 daily repeating events that constitute various routines (workout, guitar, vocal, writing), along with sundry other weekly and monthly repeating items. That sounds like a lot, but the daily agenda includes, e.g., 5 event entries for "Eat." (Okay, I know that sounds preposterously anal, but I have a minor blood sugar issue, so I've got to time my meals right.)

**I hand-write these because (1) Google Calendar doesn't yet have a task manager (I use Remember the Milk), and (2) I print out the calendar in "Agenda" view, which doesn't include event details.

Comments

[Bill Gardner]

Having made efforts at Daily Scheduling of the kind you mention, I'm curious to know how well this has worked for you. perhaps reply offline if your blog is actually going dark? cheers
Bill