Day 55

Day 55:

Ah, we go from a situation in which I had to leave very early in the morning, to a situation where it is so late at night that I only actually have 15 minutes to write about something. That's about half of the time that these normally take, so it makes sense for me to discuss the pressures that time can bring.

Getting things done when you have a close deadline can be easier than when the deadline is very far away, or when you don't have a deadline at all. The fear of not meeting this deadline, and the consequences attached, come to outweigh the urge or requirement to do other things, like watch programmes or do something easier, or (as is my case right now) sleep. Being out of the education system and working for yourself can generate issues here, since there is nobody giving you deadlines other than yourself, and self-imposed deadlines generally carry less weight. If you miss your own deadline, you are very unlikely to give yourself a very stern telling-off, or detention. Or can you?

A trend that I have noticed is using reward and punishment systems for your own work and personal goals. If you do meet them, you give yourself a pre-determined reward that you have been looking forward to. If you don't, you punish yourself, generally in ways that you have already arranged, so you can't just not go through with it. These techniques can be used independently, or together. Methods of punishment often involve money; there are some apps in which you lock away some money, which you can only get back if you achieve your goal. If not, the money is donated to charity. 

For myself, I have recently set up a 'Reward shop' in my Notion page, and I give myself points each day, depending on whether I achieve my goals. To incentivise myself to get these points, I'm locking away all of my disposable income, and I have to use points to unlock this money. Any money left over at the end of the month goes into my locked savings fund, where I can't get it. It's a fun game. Unfortunately for me, I also have a punishment lock box, which I put a pound into every time I swear. A while ago, I ran out of pound coins, and swapped in some notes. Then I ran out of notes. 

I'm now in an alarming amount of debt to myself. As in, there are multiple zeros. I should swear less.