Friday accomplishments
Sometimes to-do lists have a function. Itâs true that most of the time they just mock you silently for falling behind with their endless tyrannical demands, but sometimesâjust sometimesâthey are a source of satisfaction. This morning, I had 15 items on my to-do list (anything over 10 makes me hyperventilate), and they were all reasonably non-trivial and urgent things. This evening, I have 7½. The bonus is that it happened on a Friday, so that I can go into the weekend with a profound feeling of Zen calm with my productive day behind me.
Ticking check-box on the list is pretty satisfying by itself, but what Iâd really like is some kind of automatic reinforcement system. My computer could dispense a yummy square of dark chocolate for each completed item, or better still, I could get my lateral hypothalamus (the âpleasure centerâ zapped wirelessly to give me a little bolt of happiness. The result would be a operantly-conditioned response to completing tasksâideal! Alternatively, I would just cheat and tick the box anyway to get the hit, whichâletâs face itâis the much more likely scenario.
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Makes me think of the Sci Fi story terminal man, where a guy is zapped in the pleasure centers to control his psychopathic fits, and the brain likes it so much it keeps zapping him so triggering worse responses.
by dave murphy @ 25/01/2003 9:01 am • Permalink •
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