Idle Activities, Attention Span

I am a 21 year old who has resolved not to waste his life as he wasted his earlier youth. To this end, he aims to capitalize on downtime in order to make the most of every day. I'm lucky enough to have a remote job. I have a girlfriend, but she lives hours away. So I find myself with loads of spare time. I've been spending a fair portion of it (perhaps half) working on side projects. However, I still find myself wasting time on platforms like Twitter, Reddit, 4chan, even pr0n, just because it's the easy thing to do at the end of the day. I used to be really into literature, but lately I've been getting the feeling that most literature is simply not worth reading, including the classics. Our era seems to move too quickly to guiltlessly sit down and read a novel. I find that I can work on an individual project for a few hours before I find myself saying that I've reached a good stopping point, and fritter away the rest of the day with hypertelevision. Perhaps this is the correct thing to do -- tell me if so. I think this is the thesis of some self-help authors, that there is a limit to how much thought one can do in a day. But otherwise, I think I want to enrich myself. I see two methods of improving day-utilization: 1. pursuing other activities, that stress different parts of the mind, body. activities under consideration: a. studying mathematics (there's some stuff I've never been taught that I'd like to investigate) b. writing essays c. Exploring new technologies (at a shallow level) d. learning to draw. I've always been really really bad at this so it's compelling. e. Learning chinese f. Performing market research and making value-investing stock picks g. making alleycat/hotline cycling videos h. learning electronics 2. increasing my attention span, to work continuously on a single project for longer 3. increasing my daily cognitive/energetic reservoir so as to work continuously I am interested in recommendations for interesting and cheapish cognitive/meditative activities and methods of increasing attention span.

admirable goals, hopefully not too many bucket crabs pop in here. it really is amazing when you look back at the innovation and creativity people of the past exhibited while possessing so little technology compared to us. all they had over us was less stimulation and so they have to entertain themselves in unique ways. i firmly believe technology doesnt improve much of our humanity but infact does the opposite. think about the average vocabulary of prominent men today compared to men of old. they are completely incapable of mustering up a crowd with fiery passion. if someone were to attempt it today, their words wouldn't be understood or listened to, they'd be met with "yikes... thats cringe". the rhetoric today is all reliant on technology to repeat the same messages a handful of minds had molded together via a script, based on research by other minds. copy and paste jobs and its still entirely lackluster. varg vikernes would ask why do we need a button to press to roll down a car's window, when our arm functions perfectly well to crank it? sure its more comfortable but what are the long-term repercussions of putting comfort first every time we can? anyway dont have much specific advice for you, but i can give you an anecdote from my life you might find interesting. whenever i dont have any internet i am happier, cleaner, more energetic, and more interested in the things i'm partaking in. whether that be watching a movie, going for a walk, or reading a book. it's always been easier for me to focus on these things when there wasnt a gnawing feeling of infinite stimulation existing at the keyboard.

>>36915 You seem much more interested in learning techniques to increase your proficiency in something rather than doing things. While that may seem wise, it is not wise to spend your youth acting wise. Trying to become more adult than you are and act based on wisdom learned from books rather than understood through practice is not something I would recommend. You will simply deprive yourself of experiences that you can never get back just to get a little bit ahead of your peers. You'll never be able to live your life like you are 21 when you are 30 so why try to live like You're 30 when you're still young? Go forward the way you see fit, make big mistakes, that is nessesary. Those who while young never faced failure by being careful crumble when it first appears in their lives when they are around 28, I've seen it twice in two different people. Time "wasted" in youth is actually time you've spent learning the ways of life the hard way. You fuarrrk around and find out. It is true as you say that life is less forgiving when you do that than would be comfortable, but if you keep your head straight and don't do anything to leave permanent damage on yourself you'll be fine. Some bad things that will happen are just the waves of history that are older than your grandpa turning your boat over, learning to live with that is just the way if life. Who knows, maybe you'll help start some small waves that will turn other people's boats in 50 years. PS Forgive me, for this is very far fetched and judgemental, but you seem detached from any real goals or feelings of irresistible passion. I would recommend you open yourself more to this. Cold calculation is a tool, not a way of life. You use the tool, not let it control you. Find your passion and all the questions you ask will stop mattering.

It looks like a neurotic obsession with the finitude of existence.

>>36915 >I find that I can work on an individual project for a few hours before I find myself saying that I've reached a good stopping point, and fritter away the rest of the day with hypertelevision. I'd say that being able to focus on one specific thing for so long is quite an achievement. Hell, I'm nearly your age (20) and I wish I could focus on something for this long, usually I wuss out after about an hour+. Do you have any friends you can meet up with? pehaps you could 'waste' time with them instead of on being on websites. You (and by extension me) are only a 1/5th into your lifespan, just because you aren't doing something with 100% efficiency doesn't mean you're being wasteful. And to answer >I am interested in recommendations for interesting and cheapish cognitive/meditative activities and methods of increasing attention span. I have a personal bias for drawing. It's quite cheap to start, just a notebook (preferably one of those with the ring spine, those are a tad nicer) a pencil ( i go with HB pencils) and an eraser. how lucky that the first thread i see upon entering a new chan is something i can answer

>>36925 >You'll never be able to live your life like you are 21 when you are 30 What can you do at 21 that you cant do at 30? I can't think of a single thing. My life was fuarrrking trash at 21 but now that im over 30 I have so much more freedom, free time etc.

>>36962 Normal users think that they have get responsibilities and soykaf like that, so suddenly they have a bitch to give attention to, maybe one or two kids, a stupid dog, soykaf like that. Don't fall for that trap.

What end result you want to achieve?

I would recommend using your mind's downtime for physical exercise. Can be something simple, a walk, jogging, swimming, maybe yoga or strength exercises, or some kind of solo sport, gymnastics even. The brain and the body are more intimately connected that it might seem at first glance. A bit of a side-anecdote, but I have a friend that does parkour and urban climbing. I usually tag along for other reasons, but one time we came across a thin railing that was just short enough from the ground for me to practice balancing on it. It's actually amazing how much concentration and conscious & unconscious data processing goes into simply keeping your spine & body straight, walking a distance of not even three meters. I'd say jogging those neurons awake, and even just generally keeping your activities varied, has a positive effect on both your mind and body. See what suits your needs.

>>36962 Unless you look like you're 21 you get different reactions from people when you go out, no? You may have become better at life, but the expectations in you are raised too, aren't they? Plus the health. Unless you were unhealthy when you were 21 and then got fit you can't tell me that your bady is just as durable and full of energy. And I'm speaking more in the sense of progress. For me the purpose of life in general is to experience life as much as possible in all its forms. I really wanted to be an adult for several reasons so I undercut my childhood by 1 or 2 years so exactly by 21 when the stress got to me and I started fuarrrking up and learning that this is not the end for me that I realized that I don't want to live like I'm 25 when I'm 21, I want to experience this period of life fully because it happens only once. As you say, many people just want to forget the time when they were 21 and just speedrun to adulthood but I don't think you will be a complete person that way. Like if you ignore the 2nd year courses and just go on to pass the 3rd year courses. It's not that you can't work through it later and catch up, but it's not the best way to go about it. >>36965 Some people are happy living alone. Most aren't. Call it a trap or not, most of people earn for the partner in life and consider having children to be essential to the human experience. I and my partner don't really want to have children right now but recognise that this can change in the next few years. As long as it feels right and we're ready we should manage.

>>36974 >most people Are gullible enough to fall for the trap. If the OP considers that his most essential experience in life is gonna be a children he shouldn't even consider bothering with productivity bullshit and just apply for any job he can do, fuarrrk his girlfriend to make a children and bury himself in fulfilling the biologicaly programmed purpose of life.

>>36974 >Call it a trap or not, most of people earn for the partner in life and consider having children to be essential to the human experience. And most people end their lives with a chain of failed relationships and many, many frustrations and unresolved drama. The buddhists were right all along. Human existence is fundamentally a never-ending compulsive movement towards becoming propelled by craving.

>>36983 >And most people end their lives with a chain of failed relationships and many, many frustrations and unresolved drama. most of this doesnt really matter. come on, don't do things because you'll never resolve the drama ? Who gives a soykaf about drama to begin with solved or unsolved ? Don't start a relationship because it might be one in a chain of failed relationships youll regret when you're dead, could have been idk, posting on some dumb imageboard or jerking off to anime ?

>>36981 I hope this is bait, for your sake. This is such a strange line of thinking: not only most people, but most people eminent in any field, have children. It's possible, if not always conducive in every point in spacetime, to reproduce without being an obsessive parent. Indeed, obsessive parenting often has diminishing returns, and isn't that great a strategy for cultivating whatever you want to see more of in the world. There are a few exceptions: Tesla, Newton. The odds are vanishingly small that you're one of them. Don't kid yourself.

>>36916 I agree with you for the most part, but the vocabulary of a man from today is much greater than that of an average man 300 or 400 years ago. You must remember that education wasn't as widely available as it is today.

>>37004 is it really ? what makes you say that or just vauge assumption thats rather difficult to prove one way or the other due to the scarcity of records from 'the average man'.

>>37005 Widespread literacy testing. https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp

oh damn new forum to hang out at. One that actually is good (4chan and others are totally destroyed now)

>>36974 Your entire post is argumentum ad populum. What "most people" or "many people" do has ZERO bearing on what is best for you. >Unless you were unhealthy when you were 21 and then got fit That is exactly what happened to me. And i'm gay so the whole children thing is a wtf You seem to have the most absurd normalglitterboy view that everyones lives the same life in the same order, according to a precise yearly schedule. Insanely difficult to believe you arent a child; I dont know how else someone can have such limited life experience. The average person doesnt exist. Humans are very chaotic creatures which form with very different minds. The only way to find life satisfcation is to try to think for yourself and be strong enough and brave enough to walk your own path, pushing humanity forwards into the unknown. Culture is not your friend

>>37009 The culture is not your friend in the way you don't agree with it. In every thing you agree on culture is very much your friend. You ever read ancient philosophy? The issues on human experience are universal and intrinsic, otherwise the words written by some guy on papyrus in an ancient tongue written as gotcha dialogues starring a self insert that despised writing things down wouldn't influence centuries of thought and touch people's hearts after 2.5 millennia. What a person needs is balance. I was born a somewhat talented kid and so went to school when I was 6 plus almost every single person I hung out with out of school was at least one year older and often much more. All those years I was the shortest kid in class and when I started to get interested in relationships my classmates were already going at it for a year or so. I desperately wanted to grow up faster In any way and in my childish ignorance stunted myself so I had a lot of trouble correcting course in my early 20s. Every person develops differently and in their own way, all I'm advising is to not skip steps on your journey. If being gay is some sort of a gotcha moment I'm not sure how, there's plenty of people who adopt or surrogate mother their children with their partners. As the years go by this will become more and more available I feel. That said, obviously many people feel that not having children is the best choice and statistically women regret not having children much more than men (probably partly because you can technically become a father at any point until the day you die) I'm not sure I will have children because the world I currently Inhabit is not exactly what I want a child to experience and we both don't feel like it any time soon. Currently only our parents want the kids as they don't get any younger and grandchildren are important to them. Can't say I blame them, that seems like a great experience. I'm 25 right now, if you really must know. If you want to believe that you're super different and that your life only started at 30 and you're not living through the same thing the people lived through for thousands of years, more power to you. Whatever makes you sleep better.

>>37011 >i was born somewhat talented Did you intend to use this larp as a point in the argument? >>36986 Having a child makes you responsible. You have to dedicate yourself to raising it, otherwise you're going to be just another bullshit parent who desrves to be ripped in halves between trees. And if you dedicate yourself you have much little time to spend on your own things thus any form of self improvement becomes inefficient or plainly hopeless.

>>37014 That's just how people spoke to me and how I treated life. I don't view it as being true or a good thing at all, more like it fuarrrked me over in my early 20s as I already mentioned several times. Luckily I went to the university that humbled me by first introducing much more prodigious peers and then making them struggle because it turns out nothing before mattered at all and them we are all in the same boat employment wise because perfect grades don't do soykaf, connections you made there and puffed up resume that you are ready to shamelessly oversell is what matters. I guess also being able to do the unreasonable ammount of work in a variety of fields simultaneously in a limited time by hook and by crook without cracking.

nothing is something worth doing. you can't bring your deeds with you, but if you can find a state where you can be happy, truly happy, doing absolutely nothing, you can be happy dying.

>>37007 if you meant literacy you should have said literacy, for these are entierly different and largely disconnected things. A lot of well educated people and intelligent people throughout history have been illiterate, but no particular reason exists to assume they're vocabulary has been terribly weak. Awful difficult to tell of course, one way or the other. >>37017 then kill yourself already

>>37009 You're not `gay`, you're autistic.

>Our era seems to move too quickly to guiltlessly sit down and read a novel. There is nothing new under the sun. Literature, math and healthy interaction with the Other are the only things you need for real cognitive development. There's no point in telling you the rest. I could mention goals are worthless and everything you do will be covered in a vast, endless stretch of hot sand and death sooner than you think, but you need to reach your own conclusions and make your own philosophy. Otherwise there isn't much point to any of this. Relax and stay true to yourself. There's even less of a point in chasing something you simply aren't for.

>>37021 >There is nothing new under the sun. True but lofty. I exist in a financially bound world and I should check up on my stocks, literal and proverbial, every so often. I could be reading something, or I could be putting my effort to building a better future for myself and others through study of the state of the art. I don't mean to say that I am an AI retard executing Seven Strategies to Make Money with ChatGPT RIGHT NOW but times r a changin wherever you look >There's even less of a point in chasing something you simply aren't for. I like to think that the tension I experience on this point and my resulting poast is a sign that I have mistrained myself towards idleness. But I definitely appreciate your perspective. I find that there is too much of an emphasis (especially in this misfit board of misfit boards) on the "hidden potential" or "hidden desires" within individuals. The truth is that in a vacuum (up to your definition of vacuum), what you do is what you want to do, you reveal your preferences, not state them. Yeah, I guess I should just go with the flow as it were. And where possible execute a strategy to increase mitochondrial energy production 0u0

god why can't you please 1. write the post; 2. reread it; 3. put it off for a day or few hours; 4. reread it again; 5. repeat all the steps until it looks like something readable. what you're doing is dumping your raw unstructured flow of thoughts on us. while there are certainly a few people (some [or most] of them around your age) who will try to parse through that and give an answer, most won't even bother. that's not the way you have a meaningful conversation.

>>36974 > I don't want to live like I'm 25 when I'm 21 huh? Wait whats the difference again?

>>36962 >What can you do at 21 that you cant do at 30? I can't think of a single thing. Not that lain. It's more the headspace you and your peers are in at 21 vs 30 than there being an actual restriction on what you can do. Heavy emphasis on peers. At 21, everyone in your peer group is free and full of energy. At 30, most of them are busy and (understandably) cautious. When I was 21, I could round up a group of people on a Thursday to spontaneously explore an abandoned building, and nobody was worried about getting caught and even if we got caught, the security guard or cop would just tell us to find something else to do for fun. Now none of my peers can do things spontaneously because of their schedules, we don't have the luxury of society giving us passes for doing stupid fun things because we're young and dumb, and all of the risk centers of our brains are fully developed making us much more cautious. >>36974 >Plus the health. Unless you were unhealthy when you were 21 and then got fit you can't tell me that your bady is just as durable and full of energy. This is bullshit. Take your vitamins, spend a little time walking every week, and you're good. People don't lose energy because they hit 30, they lose energy because they get lazy.

>>37022 The only real reason to read literature is to be aware of how some of what you will or have lived has either happened or been imagined. Against the Day is a must-read for our times of massive and restless technological leaps, for example. You could be building a better future, and I urge you do, but does more awareness of your condition hurt in that case? There's only so much you can do in a day and losing yourself in the waves of the Now won't lead to the results you want to see. Each day is long enough to afford some reading. If you want to, of course. I believe every human being is capable of whatever they will themselves to do, but achieving one's fullest potential means acknowledging where your preferences and interests truly lie. You can't fight against the current of your own self. The very one that's pushing you to be better right now and also filling you with the anxiety of missing out, of squandering whatever potential you seem to think you have, and guiding you to the places where you think you'll thrive. Wanting to change is also part of being yourself. So just relax and do what you feel like:)

>>37030 >The only real reason to read literature is to be aware of how some of what you will or have lived has either happened or been imagined. even if you are a passionless utilitarian autist sadboy you shouldnt beleive this. what are you?

>>37031 Should I word it more prettily? >The only reason to read literature is to get to truly know yourself. Is that better?

>>37032 no. i can't even think of an answer. you're so spiritually poor. feel bad for you.

>>37032 thanx 4 teh preddy wurds Sir trouble is they dont seem to materially change your claim which is what I was taking issue with. I already know myself so I dont think I'd need a book to meet me nor even get to know me, I like books for various reasons like getting to know other people/things/perspectives.

>>37034 Seems like someone needs to read more. You can only know yourself in relation to others and the world, you might as well be an empty, reactive lump of flesh and memory sharing a golden core with a tiny point from which emerges everything, and which in many ways encompasses dreadful nothingness. What do you know about yourself? The illusive narrative stream you keep telling yourself you are in every moment, one that's quickly betrayed by both action and dream? How does someone that's read more than 10 books actually believe their ego and self image aren't just total bullshit lol

>>37029 Maybe my understanding is skrewed but most people my age are already falling apart by the age of 24. Lots of chronic stuff, mandatory back problems, erratic sleep schedule, gaining extra weight, constant wrestling with depression, women have issues with their hormonal cycles. Just because everyone puts on a mask of a functioning young adult doesn't mean we're not significantly more fuarrrked up right now. And that's just the people who did not spend their youth drinking and having irresponsible sex lives. I know people with arthritis at 27 and those who are going to the gym and are fit are usually struggling mentally. It's obvious from the way older people see us that it was not like that before but it's probably too complex to single out one reason for why this is happening. But then again, my sample is skewed towards stem and med people, perhaps we just get checked too thoroughly so we already know all our predispositions to chronic illnesses years before they become a big problem.

>>37037 I think I may see the issue. Is it possible you were born without a soul and have had to assemble one peicemeal from what scraps you could find left to you by othors? While I appreciate your predicament I hope you bare in mined that sum of us ore infact bourne soled. >>37038 >perhaps we just get checked too thoroughly why do you go to a doctor? I'm early 20s and havent been to one since I lived with my parents. Doing pretty much fine, not always perfect but lol idk.

>>37038 >usually struggling mentally Yeah that's valid. Something I should have been more explicit about in my post is that despite the energy, spontaneity, and positive parts of the youthful mindset, early/mid 20s does suck for mental health. That usually gets easier in the late 20s, once you've figured out how to deal with your mental issues better and settle into adult life. (Benefits of youth aside, 30s > 20s) If you're physically falling apart at age 24, and it's not part of a chronic illness (sympathies to the early arthritis guy, that's a bad deal), it's time to figure it out and fix it. You're young enough that things like back problems shouldn't be an issue and should be easily remedied.

>>37005 Because we have historical record that civilizations before us didn't have as high as a literacy rate as our does now. Industrialization allowed most families to move away from sustenance survival and created a solid middle class, which became the educated we have today. Before this, education was restricted based on sex, ethnicity, race, and class. >>36983 >The buddhists were right all along. Human existence is fundamentally a never-ending compulsive movement towards becoming propelled by craving. I don't know what else you said, but in this you are correct. Meditate, join a Sangha and live the practice if you want to extinguish your craving.

>>37041 >civilizations before us didn't have as high as a literacy rate the claim was about vocabulary not literacy rates, moron.

>>37042 Vocabulary is directly correlated with literacy.

>>37043 Maybe that's true today, but was it, idk, a millennium ago, before even the printing press ? Do you think illiterate or weakly literate nobles (many of them polyglot) across europe througout the middle ages have weak vocabularies? Nowadays writing and publishing at enourmous scale has made writing basically free and literacy extremely useful; its reasonable for even very basic education to teach reading and writing at all social strata. Its not even all together uncommon to find someone who's taught himself to read, there's just so much writing everywhere its easy, and so illiteracy implies someone is dumb or maybe blind. But this hasn't always been the case.

>>37044 >Do you think illiterate or weakly literate nobles (many of them polyglot) across europe througout the middle ages have weak vocabularies? Compared to a typical modern educated person's working vocabulary? Yes. I'm also dubious that so many people were actually polyglots, unless you were regularly going on diplomatic missions there was very little reason to learn any language besides your own and maybe a few pidgins for trade purposes.

>>37045 >yes alright, but I am sure we can agree that either way its very difficult to prove? >were many of them polyglot ? certainly some people were and Ive gotten the impression that some schooling in i.e. latin has been quite common for a long time. Charlemange as far as I'm aware is said to have spoken latin and greek in addition to his frankish, although what I've read make it sound as though he only got into literacy when he was older and never got much good at it (I admit charlemange is special and maybe not a particularly good example of the average noble, but still).

>>37046 Charlemagne is actually the one who started to require the nobles to be properly educated in his domains if I recall correctly

>>37046 >I am sure we can agree that either way its very difficult to prove? Fair enough. >certainly some people were and Ive gotten the impression that some schooling in i.e. latin has been quite common for a long time. sure, but here you're comparing people who are literally the cream of the crop (remember that most nobles were just like nobles are today, that is, not noteworthy) to basically a modern everyman. Also, generally they would be learning vulgar latin, which doesn't involve learning much vocabulary.

>>37039 >Is it possible you were born without a soul and have had to assemble one peicemeal from what scraps you could find left to you by othors? Would you tell the same to Vyasa, Christ, the old Gnostics, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Wittgenstein, Jung? Countless poets starting with Dante? The whole of Buddhism? One of lain's poster writers, PKD? They all say the same thing.

>>37053 writers and the like are biased towards saying things that sound cool but make no sense. likely because they are so introspective that they are incapable of noticing that people are different and so they project their own attitude to literature [and other things] on everyone else. and they fail to recognize that literature indulges your internal world, which is a very personal things. the fact that you rely on others' opinions in such personal matters vouches that you are a retard.

>>37048 >you're comparing people who are literally the cream of the crop If charlemange's father, who was a king of basically a king at any rate, saw no particular reason to teach his sons reading and writing, that tells you their society doesn't consider it especially useful. Its not like he hard a particular excuse to not learn it, rather that he had no particular reason to learn it. And if he didn't then there's a lot of other people less creamy than he who surely didn't either, many of them still bright and educated. Literacy nowadays is implied by any basic education, and illiteracy a mark of idiocy and all the things that go along with that. But to assume that it has always been so is a modernist bias. I'd honestly be pretty curious what charlemanges vocabulary was like compared to moderns but unfortunately all we can really do is guess or take lousy proxies like writers vaugely contemporary to him. >>37047 that seems like a really odd claim and plainly not true, but I'd be curious where you get it from. Not that he didn't do things to educate his successors of course, perhaps some of them novel.

>>37056 I thought it was pretty commonly known https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-herkimer-westerncivilization/chapter/charlemagnes-reforms/ "Charlemagne took a serious interest in scholarship, promoting the liberal arts at the court, ordering that his children and grandchildren be well-educated, and even studying himself (in a time when many leaders who promoted education did not take time to learn themselves). He studied grammar with Peter of Pisa; rhetoric, dialectic (logic), and astronomy (he was particularly interested in the movement of the stars) with Alcuin; and arithmetic with Einhard. Charlemagne’s great scholarly failure, as Einhard related, was his inability to write. When in his old age he attempted to learn—practicing the formation of letters in his bed during his free time on books and wax tablets he hid under his pillow—”his effort came too late in life and achieved little success.” His ability to read—which Einhard is silent about, and which no contemporary source supports—has also been called into question."

>>37061 dangit guys am I the only pedantic autist left ? did he promote education? sure, plainly so if you beleive any of the accounts about him. was he the first to require that his nobles be educated ? thats an entierly different claim and I just don't beleive it.

>>37062 >Charlemagne is actually the one who started to require the nobles to be properly educated in his domains if I recall correctly Emphasis on "in his domains" As in Frankish kingdom and then the Carolingian empire that he founded. So yeah, he was the first ruler that required nobles be educated in his country because he founded that country.

>>36915 Humans need down time, the brain and body need to rest. I still read because the world doesn’t move that fast. Any guilt felt is bad programming. Humans are not machines. If you are genuinely working towards something and making progress on projects then that is good. Just stay consistent. Catering your hypertelevision intake can help you feel like you are getting more done and can boost creativity. Hypertelevison can either be used to rest the brain or can be actively engaged with, know which one you are going to do before you start. “I see two methods of improving day-utilization: “ you have a list, pick one and just do it. Practice makes perfect, do the task and you will improve your attention span. Here is what I recommend Workout: You don’t need any equipment. Squats, Planks, Pushups. This will build energy reserves, improve cognition, and when you get bored of doing them are a practice in working through boredom. This also makes it easier to pursue any other physical hobby that catches your eye later down the road. If you want to go outside, run. Writing: write about what you like, keep track of progress you are making in the projects you pursue. Write down your dreams and goals, this can be seen as an external factor to keep motivation up. Becoming a better writer will help you see your thinking process and will help in every other project. Instead of calling this Writing you can call it journaling and add drawing into the mix. Let everything flow together. It seems to me you are aware of the potential of many things. Pick one then add more. If you cant handle juggling one thing how will you add more. You will invest time into things and never get where you want to. Do some things for fun. Discover the thing that you would do even if you were the last human on earth. The individual can not do everything alone, do not take this as a personal challenge.

>>37063 acceptable answer except that he wasn't the founder of the Frankish Kingdom. But as far as his own empire such as it was, sure. Borderline tautological but whatever.

As an old user myself here's what I'd recommend >workout >buy a cheap instrument and learn to play it (I'm partial to keyboard myself) >make it a point to go out on a regular basis and socialize with strangers >travel

>>36915 >I have a girlfriend, but she lives hours away. So I find myself with loads of spare time. Why include this completely irrelevant information you blogging normal user fuarrrk? No one gives a soykaf about your girlfriend.

>>36915 >fritter away the rest of the day with hypertelevision. Perhaps this is the correct thing to do It's not- trust me, I am making the same journey away from this and rediscovering my earlier passions, such as programming, philosophy, politics, electronics, etc. I've found it helps to replace the use of addictive sites with hanging out with friends, either IRL or those you've known of online for a while (do not use public chatrooms though). Twitter and Reddit are easy enough to quit. Delete your account and block them in your hosts. 4chan is slightly more difficult in my experience, but just realize it will be for the best and block it as well. Quitting pr0n entirely is very difficult, and perhaps the only thing to do is to avoid it as much as possible- what I would suggest is quitting for your girlfriend, you will have a purpose behind it and quitting will be easier. Also, start going to the gym. >>36965 A "bitch?" Sounds like you're not looking for the right women, and you sound incredibly bitter. >>37024 >numbered list >paragraphs Looks pretty structured to me. >>37029 It's like Nietzsche's concept of the Letzer Mensch. Most people slowly give up their aspirations and seek only numbing comfort as they age. >>37038 (not him) Yes, I agree that our entire generation is more obese, depressed, and has other problems than the one that came before it, more addicted to digital platforms and the like, meaning they don't really do much physical activity anymore. These are problems that generally come from our behavior (excepting certain mental illnesses). Popping seratonin pills won't fix depression in 99% of cases, but changing behavior will. Though, if you're stuck in a rut that is often quite challenging (I managed to do it).