Decluttering – Page 4 – Physician In Numbers

Future Me, January 2020 Follow Up

I started this series of posts at the end of October 2018, when I cut back my hours from full time to 90%. At the time I was dealing with overwork and atrophy of my personal life; I worried that I would waste the extra time I was buying myself with my pay cut.

I started with 10 Steps to Future Me. In mid-February 2019, I reviewed my goals from October, and came up with some new ones. In May of 2019 my father’s illness derailed my regular life, and I was pretty forgiving about missing most of my goals in the mid-June update. The work load over the summer was hefty, and again my September 2019 update had many missed marks.

I had planned to follow up at the end of the year, so it’s time to revisit September’s goals and see how I stand with them.

Future Me, September Follow Up

At the end of October 2018, I wrote about 10 Steps to Future Me. I was a bit worried that I would be cutting back on work but frittering away that extra time. Those 10 steps were meant to clarify my personal goals: improving myself, and/or finding new activities to give my life some purpose other than medicine.

A Hierarchy of Activities

Much like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, or Maimonides’ hierarchy of charitable giving, I find there is a hierarchy of activities I do in my time off. I had the opportunity to engage in many of them during my week at home:

Lessons Learned During My Staycation

I recently enjoyed some time off. After my deliberations a few months ago, followed by an exhausting road trip, I decided this time to stay home for a week. Nine days at home without having to go to work represented an experience I haven’t had for years. I found it educational.

Future Me, the June Follow Up

In mid-February 2019, I reviewed my goals from October, and came up with some new ones. I had planned to check in again at the end of May, around Memorial Day.

Memorial Day has come and gone, and with it a lot of time spent with family, as my Dad had a health crisis. He is doing better, and now that I am home, I thought it might be time to review my progress towards my goals.

Book Decluttering Challenge

I had set myself a deadline of removing 180 books from my collection by the end of May. If I manage it, I should be able to get rid of a bookshelf that I no longer want, and make more room in the house.

Little Free Library Walk

Last week I walked to the shops and back, strategically passing three Little Free Libraries. These seem to be popping up everywhere in the neighborhood these days.

Book Decluttering Challenge Update

I wrote at the end of January that I needed to work on decluttering my books.

My updated goal was to remove 180 books by the end of May. This should, in theory, clear up enough space that I would no longer need my tall bookshelf, and could make more room in my home office.

Wednesday Wool-gathering

I have some scattered thoughts, none really worthy of a full post.

Future Me, the February Follow Up

At the end of October 2018, I wrote about 10 Steps to Future Me. I was a bit worried that I would be cutting back on work and frittering that extra time away. Those 10 steps were meant to move towards my idea of how I wanted to improve myself and/or find new activities to give my life some purpose and form once I am no longer working full time. I thought it might be time to review them, see what progress I had made, and think about how I might move forward on some of those 10 steps.

To be brief, there were 10 items to work on over time, but I really only planned to address 4 or 5 of them over the short term. What have I gotten done in the past 3 to 4 months?