Reading⌗

I tend to put my fingers under the right page of a book in a rush to get to the next page. As soon as I do it, I’m already thinking about the next page and struggle to focus. Other times I’m not even thinking about the book… just reading on auto pilot, paragraphs slipping by.

I’ve been catching myself doing this more. I can’t decide if it’s

1. a sign to move on from the book or
2. a sign that my mind can’t (doesn’t want to) focus on reading.

As a catch myself doing this I re-read the last few paragraphs. If it keeps happening, I then have to decide between 1 & 2. I don’t want to force myself to read a good book when I don’t feel like reading, and I don’t want to force myself to read a book cover to cover just because “I started it”.

Driving⌗

I drive between Phoenix, AZ and Tucson, AZ a lot. 100 miles on the I-10, pretty much straight, set the cruise control and never touch the brake kind of drive.

My Aunt came over for her birthday, and we talked about driving the speed limit. I recalled my false sense of urgency on the I-10 in a rush to get from one city to another. Someday I’ll reminisce about the drive. Maybe I’ll wish I hadn’t allowed it to blend into a meaningless annoyance only prolonged by slow drivers taking up the left lane.

I’m going to try and drive the speed limit. I’m going to do the drive no podcasts or music. Time to mix it up.

School⌗

The first week of school was always really slow. New classes, new teachers, new peers, etc… then everything normalizes and it’s like someone takes the speed slider and scrubs it to the max and you’re in the rinse cycle of the core of the semester.

Then you open your eyes and its done.

Months of tests, games, events, lectures, etc… can now be boiled down to a pin head in your brain, something that had previously fully occupied your schedule/life and contained nearly all forward looking events can be distilled down to “Fall Semester Sophomore year”… a time period you can only recall memorable events from, the mundane washed over.

Life⌗

Then you hit this post-school period. There’s no arbitrary delineation of time periods like semesters. Sure a company will post quarterly earnings, but it doesn’t mark a time where you’re faced with entirely new course work with a new group of peers.

There’s not really anyone challenging you to try new things or join a club, your friends are further away and it’s a little more difficult to make new ones. It’s crazy how fast you can slide from Monday to Sunday if you pay attention (or don’t).

Result⌗

Approach the mundane with a renewed sense of observation in the minutia or put your own spin in on it.

Try new things.

Don’t try and preemptively turn the page, enjoy the page. If you can’t enjoy the page, do something else you can focus on now.

Stop wasting time doing trivial bullshit that accelerates the coagulation of life into a blurry sense of “past”.