I’ve Worked Enough

And I’m going to use the rest of my day to do whatever I want

冨嶽三十六景 甲州犬目峠 — The Inume Pass in Kai Province (Kōshū Inume tōge), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei) — from the Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0

Today, I’ve done all I need to do.

The thing that gives folks who have OCD their symptoms is a difference in how the brain communicates internally. There are two little bits, the frontal cortex and the ventral striatum which send signals that help determine that a task is complete.

I don’t have OCD, and today’s article isn’t strictly about it. But it is about that last part — knowing that things are done.

The darn newsfeeds flood us with how we can do the latest hack to get more work done so that we can get more money and do more things. The pressure is on full blast at all times.

But why should we be at full blast? Why constantly be working on something?

Getting better is a consequence of recurring action. Whether we’re doing the wrong thing or the right thing, it’s the doing again that makes it easier to go for the third time. With guidance, I can make a little bit better progress. I can write a better program, I can draw a better drawing, I can play a little better.

But is life truly about being constantly better? Maybe it’s okay to take a step back and realize that something is done. Maybe it’s okay to take a look back and reflect on what we’re doing…