& J: Joshua Bradley: Blog

I’ve been interested for a while in Jonathan Lister’s approaches to working processes and productivity. He’s been keeping a log of the methodologies he’s been developing and the projects he’s a part of, and I finally took the time to examine these closely last weekend. What was surprising for me was his almost mathematical approach to philosophical questions I’ve usually seen answered emotively, abstractly, euphemistically.

Basically I see three major points in his approach:

1. Goal-orientated not hour-orientated work.
2. Explicit and regularly updated lists of wants/goals.
3. Taking control of daily life by understanding its patterns.

Foremost (in my reading) he tries to understand what is being produced by the processes of his life and actions by examining his everyday existence with a granular detail through two initial metrics: time spent, and money spent. He breaks down both types of spending, with utmost attention to detail, whilst trying not inflect/bius it through being aware of the figures. This is crucial to me, as it implies an acceptance of the proposition that his wants/desires will manifest themselves not only through his explicit, conscious goals, but also through his daily behavioural patterns.

I’ve never had a close grasp (indeed I’ve never wanted a close grasp) of the operational realities of my own life- it has seemed to me in some inchoate fashion that to examine the abstract and indefinable qualities of a life through any practical framework will engender only hypocrisy and illusion, and moreover make one subject to the discourse/control of others. But this is, I realise, the position of a hermit- an individual who has absolute responsibility only for him or herself, since the function of the framework is to allow others to judge/collaborate/communicate via a common value-system (even if this communality is itself merely a case of mass-self-hypnosis). It is my belief now that in order to retain/gain control of oneself within a society/discourse one must be aware of what that ‘self’ is composed of through the notionally shared metrics of that social group.

Which is a rather flabby way of saying that in order to work out what I am, and what I want, with the handy by-product of gaining practical knowledge about the patterns of my passing hours and pennies, that I have begun to use Jonathan’s method, starting with a microfinance system. I’ve never known how much I spend, or on what- it’s always seemed more appropriate to concentrate on what I can make, and how fast (as long as it’s always a case of More, Faster). I’m hoping that having a total breakdown of what happens to cash I spend will give me some explicit understanding of the desires I’m seeking to fulfill, which have remained to me thus far opaque.

There will be other metrics, but this seems like a good place to start, since I’m looking for a new flat, and I don’t want to have to eat my own effluent.

‘It wouldn’t be our fault, would it, with a crazy fellow like that?’

But he was very anxious, for he was still too cold headed himself to give in to this mass hysteria. Also his pride as a leader was hurt as he saw the mob slipping out of his control and doing wild things far beyond the cold execution of the People’s Will that he had planned. He tried in vain to restore order, saying that they must not put their enemies in the right by committing acts of senseless destruction.

-Zola, Germinal. Part 5, chapter 3. p.309 in Penguin paperback (1975) translated by Leonard Tancock (1954).