Some of you may recognize this new tattoo that I got with shoalmates Shannanigan and Zombea Arthur as the life hearts from Legend of Zelda, but in the clamski idioverse these are self control hearts that we remind each other to fill up when we seem low or bleat about when we feel insufficiently loved. "Insufficiently loved," actually, comes from a whole other idioverse, from Ika, who may be pleased, if she remembers, that her idiom is alive and well across the pond.
So anyway, lately I have been embarked on a demented project that started with the chart for my clothes and has turned into a whole book of charts. With charts for everything. Bwahaha before you lock me up, read this New York Times article Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue? that Shanna sent on last week. Because it explains it all.
Decision fatigue helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food at the supermarket and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new car. No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy.
Almost the main point of my systems is to eliminate day-to-day decisionmaking in my life. It entails making global decisions that take a lot of energy, of course. It entails, honestly, wearing the same four miniskirts to work for three seasons so far. It's not for everybody. It's handy, though! Say it's spring, I look at the chart and what, fried eggs for breakfast. Actually I think spring is scrambled eggs. It's not supposed to be restrictive; if I decide I want something besides scrambled eggs, I can have that. Just if I'm not decided, I have this scrambled eggs default. Similarly with working out, really it's a good thing I didn't make Second Wind because that gave me two years of data on this, I have it set up so that postseason is strength training, preseason is fitness training, and so on. So I don't have to worry whether I should be doing whatever now. Is it postseason? Then I need to be at Kru. Is it preseason? Then I need to be at speed. Is it home season? Then I don't have to kill myself with workouts. I was figuring that I could save myself from having to make the same little decisions day in and day out, I'd have more of myself to study or practice—and now this article backs me up.
The most successful people, Baumeister and his colleagues have found, don’t use their willpower as a last-ditch defense to stop themselves from disaster. Rather, they conserve willpower by developing effective habits and routines in school and at work so that they reduce the amount of stress in their lives.
Not telling you what to spend your energy on. Not actually telling you anything at all, do what you want. Just if there's something in your life that does take a lot of energy like say derby and were wondering where you could scrape some up.
