Mind Map

I'm sure you're familiar with mind maps. They were all the craze about five years ago. ...They seem to have fallen out of style since then, which is fine, 'cause I don't think they're optimal. But the idea is a good one... representing things in a natural, parent-child way, with the ability to do some neat things. I liked 'em. On paper, as it were. But when it came right down to it, I didn't use the damn things. Too awkward to set up. Heck, I don't even do it with a blank piece of paper--also too awkward, since you're never sure where you're going to want more space. It just doesn't work, in practice.

But I do think of my life in a mind-mappy kind of way. As I see it, I've spent the last 30-some-odd years trying to find a few things to focus on. ...I'm not a "single focus" kind of guy: I have too strong an appreciation of everything life has to offer. But in the context of a diverse framework, I think I can "hone" my life down into several areas. And, in fact, I have done just that over the past decade or so. I've managed to avoid getting sucked into side projects as much as I did in the previous decade. I've learned what makes me tick, I think.

The way I see it, there are eight focuses in my life:

1. Music
2. Language
3. Eating
4. Physical Self
5. Science!
6. Programming
7. Art
8. Gaming

Some of these I neglect more than others. And in any given period of time, I have focused on one to the near-exclusion of another. But that is the nature of the beast, and what I like about my "system": it's there to provide some modicum of choice, but at the same time, a reasonable amount of focus.