A mere three weeks ago I triumphantly published a post on my home-baked productivity system describing how I’d successfully taken control of distractions in my life to get shit done. I was invincible. On top of the world. Roughly around the same time I started paying serious attention to updates about the virus. As the situation has escalated, so too has my obsession with following and thinking about it. A couple things:

Ever since getting onto the internet I’ve had a massive problem remaining productive and focused on the task at hand. This post describes the system I’m developing to help me cope with this sea of distractions, and I hope it might help you as well. Years of fighting myself with various productivity techniques, internet configurations, and browser extensions has led me to finally accept two opposing elements of my psychology:

I don’t spend much on physical stuff. It’s not that I’m a minimalist - I have just as much needless crap lying around as the next person. It’s simply that I care far more about experiences and time rather than physical possessions. I shop for clothing two or three times a year. I have one set of bedsheets. I got by without a bedframe for a year after moving into my apartment, and the one I finally found was being given away for free on Craigslist.

It’s been a long year. I learned a lot about the world as well as myself. Cried more than ever. Accomplished a few things and failed at many more. Some reflections and observations, and related readings. Personal / Life Be yourself. Because that’s the coolest version of you there is. Dancing is cathartic. Use the music as the metronome and rhythm and move your body as if you’re creating the music.

My digital life in a nutshell: I discover relevant content I don’t have time to consume, I find time and become overwhelmed with my scattered backlog, I wish the content were in a different format, and then I’m unable to find something again once I’ve consumed it. Not retaining enough is a valid problem but we’ll tackle that one later. There’s a lot of generalization in my summary but the core issue is an extraordinarily high level of friction in the process of finding, organizing, and sharing digital content.