Tomorrow is December, which means today is the last day of NaNoWriMo. Like the last time I tried this (November of 2013), I failed drastically, though this time I managed to get a few thousand words out before defaulting. Nevertheless, I chalk it up as a partial success. My time spent idly scrolling the Internet is down, though not because I particularly built discipline.
(For the most part. Kerbal Space Program takes willpower after the fifth failed attempt to get a payload into stable orbit.)
However, I can say with high confidence that next semester I will not have the free to to consider such a project. I've taken thermodynamics and statics before, and they are not easy classes. My time must be allocated to assignments, not scrolling social media.
Towards that end, I intend to break the habit over winter break. This should not be terribly difficult. I'll have but a few days before Christmas, then I'll be in Minnesota visiting my girlfriend, after which there's a two weeks before the spring semester starts. My manager has also said they'll let me work while I'm in town. So I will not be overwhelmed with free time.
Concretely, my intention is, before Christmas, to check social media in the morning and evening, but not during the bulk of the day. After that Schelling Point, I'll cut back to only evenings. (New Year would be more natural but ineffective for various reasons, not the least because it will not be a natural boundary in my life.) Once I get back to Kansas City, my focus will be on cleaning out my room and catching up on my reading. (I still haven't finished the list I made for the start of the year.)
Not all changes are deferred until after finals. Starting tomorrow, or effectively today since this is being published well before midnight, I'm going to introduce a daily post rule. This can be of any length, of any quality, on any topic. At a bare minimum, a brief recap of what transpired that day. Such a record might even make me more productive, since I'd have to explain why I got nothing done and instead scrolled Tumblr all day to you, hypothetical reader!
Finally, in 2016 I will be migrating to Wordpress. Blogspot seems to have acquired a slightly negative reputation, and sadly puns are perhaps not the best public face to put forward first. Having a a professional Wordpress is better form, and may just hold me to a higher standard for what writings I publish. This blog won't be going away, however, but I'll be converting it into a more general personal blog while intelligent, well-developed thoughts will go over there. In a way, my December post-a-day project is practice for such a functionality.
This blog will soon be about actual gripes. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
