From: Zachary Vance Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2025 16:43:54 +0000 (-0400) Subject: Telescoping X-Git-Url: https://git.za3k.com/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=5ad212166c30a436256c544ec47437da098b7c27;p=blog.git Telescoping --- diff --git a/posts/telescoping.md b/posts/telescoping.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2d2fce --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/telescoping.md @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ +--- +author: admin +categories: +- Non-Techical +date: 2025-04-16 +tags: +- time management +title: Telescoping +--- + +Sometimes I try to figure out what to do in a given week, and my first step is to think "what are my long term goals?". Then I realize I have no long-term goals. I sit down and think, "Hmm, what do I want to do with my life?" Eventually I give up, depressed, and go make breakfast or something. + +Recently I tried going the other way, with much more success. I call this exercise **telescoping**. It takes 7 minutes, and is performed as follows: + +1. Open a text document or grab a piece of paper. Grab a kitchen timer with an alarm, or your phone's alarm app. +2. For one minute, answer: *What do I want to do today?* +4. For one minute, answer: *What do I want to do this week?* +5. For one minute, answer: *What do I want to do this month?* +6. For one minute, answer: *What do I want to do this year?* +7. For one minute, answer: *What do I want to do this month?* +8. For one minute, answer: *What do I want to do this week?* +9. For one minute, answer: *What do I want to do today?* + +I found this a bit enlightening. Here's an early example (I type fast): + +2. Today + - Enjoy myself, do some intention journaling. + - Make at least a little progress on the zorchpad + - Socialize with someone enjoyably + - Become a little more long-term coherent + +3. This Week + - Work on the puzzle contest with XXX + - Hang out with YYY + - Get enough sleep! + - Maybe get exercise + +4. This Month + - Make a prototype zorchpad and start carrying it around + - Release qr-backup with no scary warnings + - Continue to learn about electronics a bit, possibly + - Have some kind of new social thing in my life + +5. This Year + - Get an income source where I don't have to do anything, and relax + - Have a satisfying version of zorchpad + - Learn electronics + - Continue to learn programming languages + - Spend a bunch of time chilling with friends + - Get a boyfriend + +6. This Month + - Make a prototype zorchpad and start carrying it around + - Keep my focus on zorchpad and intention journalling through the puzzle contest + - Make 1 new friend -- might be hard, so at least attend social events in a more friend-condusive way + +7. This Week + - Breadboard a zorchpad + - Hang out with XXX + - Work on the puzzle contest with YYY. Wait, would she actually enjoy it? A: Yes! + - Help someone with their quest! + +8. Today + - Work on breadboarding a zorchpad + - Order zorchpad parts -- at least buffers/shift registers! + - Write up telescoping in a blog post + - Possibly, think about long-term planning a little maybe perhaps + - Think about how to get sleep consistently, maybe? + +I realized went from "Make progress on the zorchpad" to having a specific list of parts to order, and noticing I needed sleep. It helped me prioritize what I wanted to do. + +I did this two or three times, and kept finding it helpful. I decided to find out what happened if I did it every day. + +Two weeks of doing it daily, I will report: it was neither super helpful nor a waste of time? + +Basically, it was pretty helpful to think through things I hadn't. The main benefit of doing this every day was keeping long-term goals in sight, but I was no longer thinking through new things much. + +The most surprising thing for me was that one minute quickly became *too long*. I reduced it to 30 seconds per step. + +On the one hand, it's not that helpful. On the other hand, it takes 3.5 minutes, and it's a nice way to orient to the day. So, might or might not keep doing it.