2020 was a year of work and recovering from the burnout of work. 2021 was a year of recovering my sense of self and my identity as an artist. I want 2022 to be the year that I find balance in all areas of my life: work, relationships, health, creative practice, spirituality.
The path to get there is still a mystery. Part of me thinks that I can just make a pie chart and then time-block my days accordingly. If the percentages line up, so will my life. Yet I can't help but think that spontaneity is also part of finding balance. Not to mention that I have tried many times to time-block my week, but my novelty-seeking ADHD brain refuses to compress itself into the neat little boxes that I lay out for it.
Maybe what I need is more of an activities menu. I know that my goal for the year is to spend my time in a balanced way. I just need an easy-to-access source of what balanced looks like for me.
I actually think this might be a fun experiment for designing and developing an app. I have tried paper activities menus in the past, but find I don't actually consult them when I'm at a decision point for what to do next. I can only keep a few items in my working memory at a time, so the likelihood of me remembering all of my options and choosing the activity that would bring me the most statistical balance is slim. (Though, like I said, percentages of time spent may not be the best indicator of a balanced life. It is just the first metric that I can think of to create an interactive model of balance, so it seems like a good place to start.)
I will continue to update this post as I more clearly define and start working toward a solution to this problem. I was recently introduced to the idea of digital gardening as an alternative to chronological blogging, and I really like the idea. It feels like yet another method to break out of the conditioning of social media. I don't know if or when I might restructure my blog to a non-chronological format, but the freedom of being able to continually add to posts as new discoveries are made feels freeing.
General 2022 Goals:
It honestly feels pretty vulnerable to share my goals for the year publicly. I've never done this before. I hope that me sharing my goals gives you permission to share yours. Your list doesn't have to be long, but if there's something you want to manifest in 2022, here's your nudge to put it out there. It'll be nice to have something to review at the end of the year. In the past, I have never gone back to my annual goals or put any formal structure into place to accomplish them. Yet when I do look back at them at the end of the year, I'm always surprised at how many I actually accomplished. Setting an intention for yourself is powerful because if you remember it even subconsciously, it will guide your decisions.
That's it for now. Happy New Year!
Not only deep thoughts and cognition, but great prose to add to captive art!
