Accountability

I’m realizing that perhaps I should pay more attention to the accountability section of this blog. Up until this point, I’ve been spending a lot of time on the productive thinking section and using this accountability section as a dumping ground for my thoughts. Of course, it’s much easier to write a large amount about interesting ideas rather than some productivity habits, but perhaps I should switch the effort I put into two of them once in a while.

Specifically, I’ve been trying really hard to make the productive thinking section less polished so that posting daily is more sustainable. Equating the accountability section with the productive thinking section should help in this regard. Meet in the middle of the effort I put into the two sections!

Today, I struggled yet again with staying productive, particularly after I got home. I honestly should’ve started this blog post much earlier–I estimate I wasted a good 2 hours today. It was just really hard to get over my procrastination hump–I need to start forcing myself to just begin.

I did start implementing a new productivity app on my iphone–rather, I thought of the idea and Eric Tai was the one who actually implemented it using the “Shortcuts” app (you’re probably reading this so thanks). What it does is it pings me every 15 minutes asking whether or not I was productive or unproductive for the past 15 minutes. I then select one of two options from my home screen–it’s very easy and fast, which is the most important thing with a productivity app that requires such regular inpupt. Only issue is that it requires me to break my attention span every 15 minutes, and, if I’m in the procrastinating mood anyways, it’s hard to break out of it. Hopefully it’ll be more effective in the future–I’m planning to create an app version of this (perhaps at a random hackathon). Let me know if you’re interested/have any suggestions.

I also tried a couple more to-do list apps. Currently, I use Any.do–I really like their ease of adding/completing items on the to-do list. I used Wunderlist before–wasn’t a huge fan of how they have multiple to-do lists (I just want a straightforward list of things I need to do that day). I also tried TickTick today–they have a really nice UI, but they do require one more click to add an extra item.

I also started taking advantage of Widgets on my iPhone–it means I can see my productivity apps without having to open my apps. Often a big reason why I don’t do my productivity habits is that I can safely ignore it behind my apps. The widgets provide a way for me to easily see what tasks I still need to complete. It’ll be harder to ignore.

Work is starting to wrap up–I have a presentation tomorrow. Looking back, I should’ve done so much more with my summer, but I need to look to see what I can control for the future not regret what’s already passed. Nobody is perfect and I shouldn’t beat myself up over not being perfect–however, that doesn’t mean I should become complacent with not reaching my full potential.

On another note, I am currently seriously considering not bringing my gaming laptop to college–I’ve already discussed this with my friends whom I play League with. I’ve spent many hours on the game over the past 2 years, and I think it may be finally time to mature away from gaming. It pains me to think about it, especially considering the fact that the friends that I talk to the most are ones that I game with. I’m sure we’ll stay in touch though.

And, in interest of making this second section more maintainable, we’ll talk about a less intellectual, more relevant topic today.

Productive Thinking

Today, my friend sent me a screenshot demonstrating exactly how much time I’ve spent on playing League of Legends over the past 2 years. Especially in my current state of striving to be more productive, realizing how much time was wasted was a big blow to me. I immediately thought of ways to cut down on how much I play. As I mentioned earlier, I think not bringing my gaming laptop to college this coming semester will be a definite way to quit.

As I thought more about it, I realized it wasn’t as straightforward as that. There’s a reason why I consider playing video games a different category than simply “wasting time.” When I refer to wasting time, I mostly mean the time that I spend sitting around browsing the internet or watching Youtube–time that I’m passing simply for the purpose of avoiding work. I do not have much fun at all during this time, but in the moment, it’s a hell of a lot better than starting that dreaded assignment. Yet, when I start the assignment, it’s often not as bad as I thought.

In contrast, when I play video games with friends, I have a ton of fun and it’s very fulfilling. I’m often socializing a lot there too, and it has all the benefits of conventionally hanging out with friends in real life–yet physical hang outs are stigmatized much less than playing online. In both scenarios, time is spent on non-academic/productive activities, and social bonds are being strengthened. In fact, I’d argue that friendships are strengthened just as much, if not more, playing video games compared with just grabbing a meal with a friend. Obviously doing both is best, but sharing a fun gaming experience together correlates that individual with feelings of enjoyment–physiologically, this deepends friendships.

I’ll go much deeper into how nerdy activities such as playing video games are stigmatized, but I’ll first deal with the immediate situation at hand–why I choose to play video games over other “fun” activities. The answer indirectly lies in the fact that League of Legends has remained the number one played game after 10 years–this does not happen merely by accident. The game is extremely fun, and very few activities can reach the same level of enjoyment and ease of accessibility.

What begins to happen after you play League or any other addicting video game long enough is you develop a “fun tolerance”–other activities do not produce the same amount of satisfaction, so you increasingly turn to playing games over other activities whenever you have leisure time. This marks the beginning of addiction–at its extreme, people find real life extremely depressing and turn to a virtual world in hopes of feeling slightly better, even if it’s for a short time. The longer they can stay in the virtual world, the longer they can ignore the depressing realities of the world–it’s a never-ending cycle, since neglecting the real world will only make reality that much more depressing and the virtual world that much better in comparison.

While I’m by no means severely addicted to video games, I admit that I have developed a so-called “fun tolerance.” I prefer playing video games over any other leisure activity, I love the friends I’ve made through the gaming community, and virtual/fantasy aspects just make life a lot more interesting. It’s a tough decision to leave all of this behind, but I really need to take a step back before the fun tolerance turns into full-on addiction.

I have a lot more to talk about regarding video games–they’re a unique perspective in society that very few people understand unless they too game/have gamed. I’m excited to talk more about it in the future–keep tuned for future blog posts!