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In an odd touch of serendipity, or perhaps synchronicity, solderpunk posted in his gemlog about partitioning his online/offline time and this week's episode of the Multiamory podcast was about transitioning between segments of your life.
solderpunk's post, "Progress toward 'offline first.'"
Multiamory episode 284, "Daily Transitions."
I think about the segments of my day from time to time. A lot of my reading material last year was about habits, including getting into the ever-elusive "flow state." Since quitting social media (excluding Mastodon), getting into the flow has gotten easier-- about where it was in the 2000s before clickbait got so damned good at capturing our brief moments of downtime.
I don't know if I've the tenacity to adhere to an Internet on/off switch as solderpunk is striving to do, but the Multiamory podcast got me thinking a bit about the transitions between segments of my day. The gist being that our brains are wired towards using recognizable landmarks for transitioning between these daily segments. The commute home, for instance, is an opportunity to turn off my "work" brain and prepare for being at home, free of the worries of the workday. Reminds me of Mr. Rogers changing shoes and slipping into a comfortable cardigan at the start of each episode of "Mister Roger's Neighborhood."
Further, landmarks, settings, and clothing have an appreciable effect on my mindset. The commute, which in theory I would abhor as wasted time spent in a car, is 15-20 minutes of quiet time, an interlude between my time and the time I sell to my employer. Working from home is a lot easier when the space I'm in, my desk and its surroundings, is established as a place of sustained effort and not leisure time. Exercise and chores are less daunting once I've slipped into some gym shorts.
I think that social media and smartphones are doing their damnedest to break those transitions, to capture our "free time," with the collateral damage of robbing us of our ability to partition our lives.
Strangely, I think this is why I like developing on Plan 9 so much. It's a barren environment, there's terminals, the `acme` editor, and not much else. It's like journaling or making art on a clean desk. The empty space is what makes it so useful.
Until next time, be well!
kvothe.