⌚ Time and How to Spend it

Hey you,

Today’s Listening: I like piano

Four Thousand Weeks. That is how long most of us have to live.

So what are you doing this week?

Me personally, I'm going through an existential crisis consisting of scribbling a lot of words on calendars, books, my hand, and pretty much anywhere else I think matters.

Hi! Welcome to Just in Development 2024 edition! Today's topic is how we plan to have our video games and eat them too!

New Years (and the first couple weeks of January) are the most interesting part of the year for me. It usually consists of attempts at planning the next 52 weeks of my life, in a manner that feels plausible. And I just finished reading a book that shot so many holes in my plans that this patchwork Ship of Theseus is gonna need a new hull.

Reading Four Thousand Weeks - Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman was a slap in the face. Time management and planning were perhaps the biggest challenges I wrestled with in 2023. I consumed so much content regarding the topic, I thought I was finally making headway. I thought I was about to reach apotheosis and have full dominion of time and space.

And if I had written that very sentence about 6 months ago, maybe I could've saved myself 26 weeks. (I mean seriously what the heck)

We will never have full control of our time.

There are not many things I like to say with 100% certainty, but this is one of them.

We will never be able to do all the things.

Some of us will hear that and brush it off, not truly internalize it. But if you reflect on all the life you've already lived, you know it is true.

The book I read pounded those two sentiments into my skull with a steel pipe, repeatedly. It simultaneously taught me to slow down, appreciate what I have; while also demanding I get my act together, stop having 21 different projects running, and assess my priorities.

Now, more importantly...what does this mean for video games?!?!?!

SO MANY incredible games came out in 2023, and I have barely played any of them. I have both Baldur's Gate 3, and Tears of the Kingdom, with about 3 hours of playtime each. Why have I committed this heinous gamer crime you may ask?

Because I couldn't stop to commit to them. It may sound weird that you have to "commit" to a game, but it is true.

We get bombarded constantly by things seeking our attention, our time. Or even worse, we create new things that absolutely devour our time.

I want to play so many games, I have a backlog I am constantly updating with over 70 games and over 1200 hours of estimated playtime. That's 50 weeks of gameplay...not including sleep, because who needs that amirite gamers?

So realistically...I have a list of 3 years worth of games...more keep coming out...and I've removed a lot.

So this year, I made a simple plan.

One game, every month. To completion, or deletion.

I listed the games I will play for each month, the ones with play times over 12 hours. I also sprinkled a couple short 1-2 hour games for when I feel like it.

If you are subscribed you can see my list at the bottom of this post :)

Bringing this altogether though, it has been demoralizing, and rejuvenating at the same time. Finally confronting that I will never complete everything, but also having a plan to do what I wish for most.

So in the end, be real with yourself. You cannot possibly become a YouTuber with 100k subs, and an artist, and have a partner, and work a full time job, and compose music, and be well read, and write poetry, and also platinum Dark Souls all at the same time.

And you have to sleep too, don't forget that one.

You have to be okay with the fact those other things cannot coexist right now, maybe later, but not now. Choose one or two things, commit to them, let them be the flags you carry, the flags you hoist in victory.

You only got two hands, if you try to carry anymore at once, something will slip.

And it might just break your foot.