Looking back at 2013, I see a lot of unfinished business: books I haven’t read (or have read but haven’t reviewed), board games I haven’t played, more apps on my iPad than I want to count. There are cool places in town I haven’t taken my kids, friends I haven’t spent enough time with, half-finished projects all over the house. My first impulse is: I should DO ALL THE THINGS. I should read more, write more, get to all of this unfinished business—inbox zero, uncluttered desk, everything shelved alpha by author.
But as we enter the new year, I’m thinking maybe a new approach is in order.
My “review shelf” currently has about 60 board games and nearly 600 books. And that’s after weeding out the ones that didn’t look at least somewhat intriguing to me. I wrote about over a dozen apps just the other day, but that barely scratches the surface of all the ones I’ve tried out this year. But that’s just the stuff that I’ve obligated myself to review. It doesn’t include those books I bought for myself, the games I backed on Kickstarter that have been arriving, and—oh, yeah—the TV shows I’ve been meaning to catch up on.
Trying to read faster and write more hasn’t seemed to help. It just makes me more stressed out about all the things that are left to do, and sometimes sucks the enjoyment out of the things I do get done. The whole reason I’m blogging is to share my love for these hobbies—they certainly shouldn’t feel like a drudgery.
So, for this new year, I’m actually resolving to do less. I’m going to spend more time enjoying my board games and a little less time thinking about what needs to be reviewed when. Maybe I’ll try doing some new things, without the fear of dropping it if it doesn’t work out. I resolve to leave books unfinished if they’re not worth reading. Instead of always teaching new games to my game night buddies, I’ll play more familiar games with my own kids.
Here’s to unfinished business. Now, if you’ll excuse me—
I totally agree. I can’t count the number of times I have passed on an app, game, book, or show because what I am enjoying is taking all my time so I simply have to say, “I am happy with what I have.”
That doesn’t mean I don’t try lots of new things, but I tend to limit myself to the ones that we are all enjoying as a family together might overrule anything new. I am also not ashamed to be “late to the party” on something new and cool because really, it’s only fun if you have time to enjoy it.
For example… I Might try out Skylander’s Swapforce (something written about extensively on GeekDad) but we are still having fun with Minecraft and LEGO Marvel. I was thinking about buying Animal Crossing: New Leaf, but really, the Wii version is still fun. I might play a new rpg or boardgame, or I might just stick with the pile I have, some of which I haven’t even opened.
If life is good, I don’t think you are really missing out. There is just too much good stuff and even a fraction of it is enough.
I actually thought about having a semi-regular column called “Late to the Party” in which I review things that are no longer new. 🙂
Wow… you win. I thought my stack of 10-15 unsolicited books, 5-8 requested, and half a dozen apps and game review requests was tough. I think the right thing is to declare a Content Bankruptcy and start from scratch, Jonathan.
Yeah, it turns out that the faster you review books, the more unsolicited books show up on your doorstep, so the problem gets worse instead of better. I don’t necessarily feel obligated to review all of the unsolicited stuff, but I have it because it looks interesting enough that I think I’d like to read it. But at 600 books, it’s certainly obvious that I’m not going to get all of them (or even a substantial fraction of them) reviewed within the year, even assuming absolutely nothing new arrives.