What's your satisfaction?
In 2004 I started keeping a haphazard record of which books I read, thanks to writing short reviews here on LJ. In 2006, after realizing that my time is limited and the number of books to read approaches infinity, I started creating yearly lists of books I want to read.
Early in this practice I was often frustrated to realize, at the end of the year, that I'd read a bunch of books that weren't on my list but few of those that were. For several years I thought Eh, so I'll read these books next year. Except each year I make my new list (which I cap at 100 titles), and there are new books to add, plus all the books that will appear after the list is made, and the holdover titles were taking up all the slots.
So the last two years I have been brutal about culling "roll-over" titles from my list. If a title has been there for years but I haven't read it, does it belong? Rather like the "Moving to Thailand" means of sorting possessions, this is a good way of clarifying how I want to spend my time.
One of my methods is through personal challenges. A conversation with warsop reminded me that I had lost sight of my efforts to learn more about the world by absorbing art from cultures other than mine. (I chose my high school because of its International Studies program.) That conversation created my first challenge: to read more books by non-anglo authors.
Next I realized that almost all of the speculative fiction I've read, especially the "hard" SF, is by male authors. So I started seeking out & prioritizing speculative fiction by female authors.
Earlier this year I saw a challenge on Goodreads that appealed to me. They suggested reading a book set in every U.S state. That's too easy (I've probably already done it), but I read vast numbers of mysteries. So I decided to read a mystery set in every state. And while it was true that before I even started that I'd crossed off more than 2/5 of the states, it turns out there aren't many mysteries set in, oh, Montana. (I managed it, though it turned out to be more romantic suspense than mystery, and a badly written one at that. Uck.)
The last week or so I've spent time updating & organizing this year's list of books to read and coordinating it with my goodreads account. (And adding a few titles I know will roll over to next year, because next year is closer than I'd like.) I've also been indulging myself by seeing if I'm reading books from each of my challenges, and from all parts of the alphabet. (Me? I'm never neurotic or complusive. Why do you ask?)
Turns out that I've been remiss. M - Po has been grossly neglected, and I've only read one title that was written by a non-anglo author. (I thought there had been more, but the two more recent books I chose for that challenge were painful enough to get through that they blurred my memories and warped time.) As a result my list of titles to check out has been amended, and, if all goes well, I will end the year feeling absurdly satisfied with with how much I accomplished from this particular list. (I'm practicing allowing myself to feel absurdly satisfied.)
All of this leads up to two questions for you:
1) Is there an area (or areas) of your life where you (perhaps compulsively) organize or track things?
2) What's something that does (or would) cause you to feel absurdly satisfied?**
__________
**I'm fine with any answer you might give, but if it matters to you please note this is a public entry.
Early in this practice I was often frustrated to realize, at the end of the year, that I'd read a bunch of books that weren't on my list but few of those that were. For several years I thought Eh, so I'll read these books next year. Except each year I make my new list (which I cap at 100 titles), and there are new books to add, plus all the books that will appear after the list is made, and the holdover titles were taking up all the slots.
So the last two years I have been brutal about culling "roll-over" titles from my list. If a title has been there for years but I haven't read it, does it belong? Rather like the "Moving to Thailand" means of sorting possessions, this is a good way of clarifying how I want to spend my time.
One of my methods is through personal challenges. A conversation with warsop reminded me that I had lost sight of my efforts to learn more about the world by absorbing art from cultures other than mine. (I chose my high school because of its International Studies program.) That conversation created my first challenge: to read more books by non-anglo authors.
Next I realized that almost all of the speculative fiction I've read, especially the "hard" SF, is by male authors. So I started seeking out & prioritizing speculative fiction by female authors.
Earlier this year I saw a challenge on Goodreads that appealed to me. They suggested reading a book set in every U.S state. That's too easy (I've probably already done it), but I read vast numbers of mysteries. So I decided to read a mystery set in every state. And while it was true that before I even started that I'd crossed off more than 2/5 of the states, it turns out there aren't many mysteries set in, oh, Montana. (I managed it, though it turned out to be more romantic suspense than mystery, and a badly written one at that. Uck.)
The last week or so I've spent time updating & organizing this year's list of books to read and coordinating it with my goodreads account. (And adding a few titles I know will roll over to next year, because next year is closer than I'd like.) I've also been indulging myself by seeing if I'm reading books from each of my challenges, and from all parts of the alphabet. (Me? I'm never neurotic or complusive. Why do you ask?)
Turns out that I've been remiss. M - Po has been grossly neglected, and I've only read one title that was written by a non-anglo author. (I thought there had been more, but the two more recent books I chose for that challenge were painful enough to get through that they blurred my memories and warped time.) As a result my list of titles to check out has been amended, and, if all goes well, I will end the year feeling absurdly satisfied with with how much I accomplished from this particular list. (I'm practicing allowing myself to feel absurdly satisfied.)
All of this leads up to two questions for you:
1) Is there an area (or areas) of your life where you (perhaps compulsively) organize or track things?
2) What's something that does (or would) cause you to feel absurdly satisfied?**
__________
**I'm fine with any answer you might give, but if it matters to you please note this is a public entry.