Actually I wanted to write a habit review.
But I feel like my habits are—well, my everything is—informed by my work/play matrix and it might be a good time to revisit that?
This still holds:
work is something that is done as a means to an end
play is something that is done as an end in itself
Now we make a table:
| that is work | that is play | |
| Work | WORK something that is done as a means to an end that is a means to an end | HOBBY something that is done as a means to an end that is an end in itself |
| Play | PLAY something that is done as an end in itself that is a means to an end | PASTIME something that is done as an end in itself that is an end in itself |
I left off with this right around this time two—yikes, three years ago, when I was just going back to work after my sister died. That's weird, I feel like I've moved on; yet obviously, still living that outcome. I mean, I only went back to three days of work last August. Well, anyway. What do I mean by work. What does it all mean.
| 2011 | 2014 | |
| WORK | my day job two days a week | my day job three days a week |
| HOBBY | Systems Home write blog posts write Livestrong articles | Systems Home |
| PLAY | derby | personal training (train) derby (practice) |
| PASTIME | everything else | write blog posts watch TV and movies make stuff see people |
I'm also going to say that this still holds:
Do a little bit of work, but as little as possible.
Make a living at hobby or play.
The less work you do, the less pastime you need.
Really those three things are how my life works, it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, your mileage may vary. That said, here's a quick rundown of my life:
- WORK is work, my day job, I'm up from two to three days a week now. Really I only did that to help out because Jackie was finishing up her physician's assistant program, but discovered that the difference between two and three days is like red and black, as in "in the black" for the first time, and for five months and counting, since everything went to hell in a handbasket. So that's fantastic, and it super holds for me that where a lot of work is soul crushing, a little work is whatever the opposite of soul crushing is. Soul un-crushing. Soul straightening and smoothing out.
- HOBBY is housework, basically. I know, that's so dire to say. It just ended up like that, I'm not saying that my hobby is doing dishes. When it's all caps, it's a technical term. That said, yeah, cooking and cleaning and clothing myself are things that I do as means to an end, so that I'm not hungry, dirty, or naked, that are ends in themselves. I enjoy cooking, cleaning somewhat less, and if you can't tell from the state of my sweatpants, clothing least. Kind of importantly, I no longer count writing as HOBBY. Writing actually phased through PLAY and now lives happily in PASTIME.
- PLAY has expanded from derby to personal training and derby, which is an awesome development.
- Last but not least, PASTIME actually has a bit more focus, not the least of which is that writing lives here. It's hard to explain, it feels at home here. Writing feels better being part of PASTIME, and PASTIME feels better having writing in the house. The other members of the house are watching TV and movies, seeing people, and making stuff (usually while watching TV).
Haha:
- writing - Gryffyndor
- watching - Ravenclaw
- seeing - Slytherin
- making - Hufflepuff
Or hm:
- WORK - Slytherin
- HOBBY - Hufflepuff
- PLAY - Gryffyndor
- PASTIME - Ravenclaw
