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Hi Warmup,
The problem: I took a few days off from dealing with assembling my tax #s to focus on paid work. When I came back I could barely recall what'd I had done, where my best spreadsheet was, which other expenses I needed and which ones were on "record" already. Huh. My memory had "faded" over the course of five days. John Steinbeck suffered something like this when he took breaks from writing his epic novels, to rest, visit with friends, move his household, or have a bit of fun. When he came back to work on Monday he often complained how difficult it was to find the thread of where he'd left off.
So, tonite I called Jerry Seinfeld, E L Doctorow, Anne Lamott, Irene Maria Fornes, and Hermann Ebbinghaus to a meeting to help me understand.
From H. Ebbinghaus: Yes, you see, you and Herr Steinbeck are experience the forgetting curve. In just 24 hours we forget maybe 35% of what you were working on. In two days, it's close to 60%. Yes, it's s burden to get to your work everyday. But remember, Herr Lynx, its a burden to remember after the gap. One must choose.
From Seinfeld & Lamott: everyday do a minimum bit of work that moves things forward.
From E L Doctorow: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” This means to me I only need to "see" out a couple of days, just keep it rolling so I can plan when I'll get to my forward moving bits of work.
From Fornes: There's a part of you that wants to do this daily thing because it's smart and will save time and effort, in theory, and a side of you that gets tired, busy, committed, needs a break, rebels, and makes excuses — that at heart doesn't want to do it. The worker must keep tricking the other one.
The test. This leaves me with: a new spreadsheet with the days of the month in the first column, and my best guess at what my minimum might be for the next two or three days (limits of my sight in the fog).
Some days that just noticeable advance may be indeed just noticeable.
So be it, and so it is.
Revu2
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