It’s that time of year when writers (and others) feel compelled to sum up, to present the results of the past calendar year as an offset for whatever slacking off or failures mounted up over that same time.
Not gonna do that. Instead, I’d like to present my anti-wish list, my official Do Not Want for 2015, in the hopes of reducing my stress footprint and also possibly optimizing the square footage of my home. Cluttered space, cluttered brain.
For example, there is a hand-me-down telescope taking up the space of an actual human being in my living room at this time. Why? Because I share my space with other people who have different priorities, and by different I mean we live in a part of Northern California where the skies are almost permanently obscured. Morlocks have a better view of the sky than we do. But, science! OK.
For another example, the style guides. Have I mentioned that I love hard copy style guides? The physical heft of their authority, the creamy page stock. I don’t so much love having to get up and fetch one when I need it, but in my experience online guides are often more difficult to use than they should be. CMoS and friends are engulfing my shelf space, however, which means some other stuff has got to go. I already recycled the thesaurus (who the hell uses those anymore?), but I know there are some freeloaders hanging out in the stacks that serve no purpose at all. Norton anthologies? You’re next.
And now, on to the list.
1. Vague jobs. They are so much more trouble than they’re worth, and often the clients who bring them to me without sharply delineated instructions tend to have a very fuzzy idea of what they want as an end result and are therefore never quite satisfied. Do you know what you want and when you want it? Do you have a clear plan for the project after I return it to you? Let’s do business.
2. Guilt-induced pro bono work. I need to make room for some “nos” and possibly a lot more delegation. What makes it hard to say “no”?
3. Control issues. Difficult to avoid those when your job involves making things perfect; my challenge for the coming year will be to distinguish between the handful of things I’m getting paid to polish to a high gloss and everything else. There must be a prayer for that, like what the alcoholics have.
4. Abandoned furniture, housewares, and hardcover fiction. It’s amazing what people will put out on the sidewalk. Really great stuff. What’s more amazing is that I continue to take it in when I find it despite an evident lack of space. I need to have faith that things will find their home in the universe without my assistance, or else start up an eBay shop (like I have time for that).
5. Things that don’t work. My house is filled with items that are slightly broken; they kind of work, if you do that thing and hold them just right. In the spirit of reducing consumption I dislike throwing things away that aren’t completely useless, and that attitude has caused me a fair amount of trouble. When I sort out all the physical objects that aren’t pulling their weight in my household, I’ll move on to the metaphorical slackers.
6. Cetacean time wasters. There are minor time wasters and harmless avoidance behavior, like Buzzfeed and YouTube and organizing the spice cabinet, and then there’s rereading Moby-Dick as a requisite for starting one’s master’s thesis, which has no mention of Melville, whales, or nautical history. Yes, I did that, and I did finish my thesis more or less on time, but that was many years ago, when free time was abundant and mental energy seemed infinite. And I had solid reasons for picking up that book at that time as a palate cleanser before beginning work; I wish I could remember them because they were probably awesome. Or terrible, whichever.
To sum up, yes, there is a pattern here, and it involves saying “yes” to the wrong opportunities and not saying “no,” or “thanks, but I couldn’t possibly,” or “are you freaking kidding me with that?” Therefore, in 2015, be advised: I am saying “no” to all bloated, amorphous, Kraken-sized time sucks without fair compensation. I am saying “no” to what is damaged beyond repair, redundant, or takes up more space than it deserves.
I will be uttering a joyful “yes!” to all challenging but concrete projects, as many as I can fit in (but no more), and to any number of minnow-sized time wasters. Those are beneficial to the creative process and take up no more space than the flame after a candle is blown out.
Happy New Year! May your 2015 be fun and productive.