If we can keep moving forward we can eventually win. But we must enjoy moving forward or at least be willing to endure it.

Deadlines are part of our lives, ever looming in front of us. For every one we pass another emerges on the horizon.

Most deadlines are transparent, allowing us to see other deadlines through it. Some are opaque and allow us to see nothing more than the deadline itself. The scale of transparency to opacity is often something we unconsciously dial up or down ourselves. We do it unconsciously without regard for the importance of the deadline we’re moving towards. In this way we focus too much on deadlines that relate to something meaningless and not enough to deadlines of real importance to our lives. We fool ourselves.

Many deadlines are arbitrary, created by ourselves. We place them in front of us to help us focus. Something to aim for. Self-created deadlines bring their own problem. Because they are self-created we see them as less real. So as they get nearer we move them further away again. In this way we fail to achieve our goals. We fool ourselves.

There is also the opposite problem; we often see deadlines as fixed. This arises whether the deadline is self-created or not, though much less so for deadlines self-created. In these cases we rush towards the deadline knowing we need more time to achieve the goal, to succeed, to avoid failure, yet do nothing about changing it. Only complaining that it is too close. We don’t even try to move it further away.

Deadlines are part of our lives. We can adjust them to be more or less transparent, and closer or further away. The trick is in making the right change.

From time to time you have to put in extra hours. Early mornings, late nights.

Those extra hours are important but too many are unsustainable. They wear you down. They make you unproductive. You can do it for a while (days, weeks, months) but eventually you’ll burn out.

Early mornings, late nights. Pick one or the other not both. Much more sustainable.

I enjoy watching movies and tv shows on Netflix. But I have a complaint – though a slight one.

Netflix recommends other movies and tv shows for you to watch based on your viewing habits. Makes sense and sounds like a good idea. The problem is that Netflix often ends up recommending something I’ve already watched on Netflix.

It’s like ‘Hey, you enjoyed that show Jessica Jones… you should check out this other show called Luke Cage’. Great except I just finished watching that a couple of weeks ago. If the show had been watched somewhere other than Netflix that would be one thing but it wasn’t.

How hard is it to filter recommendations against shows and movies I’ve already watched on the service? Surely it shouldn’t be very difficult.

Everything takes longer than expected.

Think it’ll take a week? Double it or triple it to be on the safe side. Better to have extra time than to run out of time.

For the past week I’ve worked almost exclusively on house projects, painting for the most part. I’ve found it surprisingly easy to lose track of the routine things during that time. Things such as writing these posts are barely being thought about.

A week ago, and for many months previously, writing these posts was something that was always front of mind. Now it’s an incidental thought more along the lines of ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got to do that yet’.

It suggests that throwing yourself into something different for a week or so could act as a reset button for your whole routine. A system shock that dislodges the usual habits.