I’m the kind of person who finds it difficult to really relax. I think most people can easily enough, when on holiday, sit in a lawn chair on the beach sipping a cold alcoholic beverage, and forget about the real world – at least for a while. I tend to be incapable of such a feat. There’s always something on my to-do list, in fact there’s always many things on it. As hard as I try to just do nothing, I feel guilty for not checking things off the list.

And so, when I find myself in the limbo of being in between one major project’s completion and the beginning of the next, with no deadlines looming overhead, I feel unsure as to how I should spend my waking hours. To resolve this, I like to use one of my favorite tools: lists. This morning when wondering what I could do today, I began by writing out everything that I could possibly do. It gave me a much-needed overview of my possible choices. It included activities like catching up on the movies that have been accumulating on my to-watch list, continuing to work on the project that just came to a “completion”, and writing this blog post.

Also on that list were things like playing games that I’ve purchased but haven’t had the time to finish, reading books that have been mostly just collecting dust, and other activities which I don’t often make time for like 3D modeling, making music, sketching, and journaling.

It seems like I’ve decided that writing this blog post is a worth-while first activity for the day, who knows what else I’ll chose to do. It seems probable that I’ll pick items from the list semi-randomly until the weekend slips away and I find myself on Monday morning embracing the guidance of a brand new deadline being placed above me.