It is an oft-repeated refrain at my house. “You have too many hobbies.” This is said with joy, frustration, annoyance, wonder, incredulity — all in equal measure. And it is true. I have always been hungry for the kind of satisfaction that only comes with solving a new kind of problem. For a long time school, and especially math, provided a whole universe of possibility. But somewhere mid-University I reached the level of diminishing returns. It just took too long to learn the skills needed to solve the next hardest problem. (Translation: I hit the ceiling on my intelligence and it stopped being fun.)
And so now I have to chase hobbies, classes, skills and achievements like the Dopamine addict I am.
For a long time, that meant Google Sheets, text documents with resolutions and lists, tracker apps, private calendars with hoped for due dates, and even this blog as a way to mark and understand where the next bump could come from.
However, I have now found the app to kill all apps — Notion! I am managing my entire life there. Hobbies, classes, goals, even personal things (that are hidden in the animation below.) I love that I can destroy and remake the databases and relationships, add fields and categories, and play around with how things are displayed. All of this playing around led a friend to comment “Your new hobby is managing your hobbies!” and it is totally true. But you can see from the timeline, that since tracking everything, I have increased my sense of accomplishment by tracking and categorizing things that I used to do informally. Definition = dopamine.
I have yet to figure out how I can use this to actually enhance my life in some kind of tangible way, but for now I’m going with the mantra “What’s measured improves” so I’m measuring, tracking, planning and grouping all the fun* things I do, and maybe one day they will lead to another tangible accomplishment. (or not, but who cares if I’m happy doing it).
*”fun” being how I see it, other’s experience may vary.