User:Ssstephen/prototype/20231010
chronotype
What does it mean to put form on time? You need a structure in your day. A calendar app can be really useful. John Cage's Water Walk: music is just structured time. How long do we have left together? How long is this song going to go on for? HOw long can you hold your breath?
I used to make to do lists in InDesign because I felt at home there. It was at the time the best tool for the job because I could print the list out on nice paper and make it look cool. What do or did I like about the visual appearance? Some professionalism or ease of reading or structure for sure. But to print it on recycled paper and A5 is more about materiality. Making time tangible. Making the future tangible. Is it ever? Projection is not about forecasts and control but something more subtle and sidereal.
These days I make to do lists in LibreOffice Calc because I want to use more open source software. There is a folder containing metawork like to do lists, projection is a project and something I practice, just like the work I do for clients. There is never an expectation to get paid for this but it certainly fits in the same category in my mind and I try to do it in similar "working hours" of the day. This is not about overarching plans or trying to meet my needs generally. It is about completing work tasks effectively.
I open (by double clicking) the most recent version of the To Do list .ods file as it is much easier than starting from scratch. Although it presents some problems as it forces me to think of what was urgent last time I did this. In this case last time was quite a busy moment. Lots of things were done since then. Some things slipped through the cracks, oops. That's what happens when you have cracks. I save a new version of the file and start deleting things I dont need.
The layout is kind of copied from what I used to have in the InDesign document. I use empty rows and columns for visual margins. The content starts in cell B2. It's a title that says "To Do". The font is Work Sans SemiBold and it is set in 10pt, colour "automatic". I think even if it wasn't automatic I would make it black, because I want to print it clearly and cheaply. I use Work Sans because I am trying to switch to using Open Font Licence and open source fonts more generally. Previously I would have used Helvetica Now or some other proprietary font. There is a visual difference between these fonts too which is also relevant buuuuut this description is getting very detailed maybe not right now.
The second cell (C2) also has some information about the document, a date range. "10.10.23 – 13.10.23". This is the new date range I have put in now. It is a four day period and probably will change when I work out how long the tasks will take. Part of this process is about caring for myself and not trying to do everything immediately. This cell is in Work Sans Regular 10pt colour automatic. The change of font weights I guess is part of the structuring and trying to make this information clear to myself. It's calming maybe.
After this there is a blank row to make it prettier.
After this there is a row with three cells of data. In columns B, C and D are the client name, task, and estimated time required, in hours. It goes SemiBold - Regular - SemiBold. The middle column is much wider as it's content is generally longer. It continues this way down the page, grouped by client. If there is more than one task associated with one client, I do not repeat the client name but leave cell B blank in that row. After all the tasks for one client there is a blank row.
Because I was very busy last time I did this there are also two rows at the bottom with total hours and days that the work will require. This time I dont want so much structure so deletio.
Now I will start changing the information/data/time. This annotation method is super in depth I'm not getting the task itself done. Which is reflexively a bit interesting in this context. Getting too distracted now, back to the document. I make a category called "Other" at the bottom to group the small tasks where I only have one thing to do per client. I also put metawork in here like invoicing. What do I mean metawork? I'm trying to have a work for things that I do not technically get paid an hourly rate. I dont know if it's useful or appropriate to separate that work. As a self-employed worker (oooh what does that mean?) it is important to keep track of how and when you are getting paid.
Oh amazing the list is way shorter than I thought it would be. That is a bit calming, which was kind of the point. I don't include anything on this list that is not to do with paid projects at least fairly closely. This is another division of my time: we are talking about a specific type of work time here. It is separate from other things I want to do, like cut my hair, read for my thesis, go for a walk while it's sunny. Separating tasks and types of tasks can avoid confusion, and makes me calmer and more comfortable. An hour ago I was more spinny than now, I am calming. Putting things in a known place or time helps to understand and accept them. and to put my
"The Tyranny of Structurelessness" the xpub1 radio says. Interesting. I will print it without permission, I still havent read it.
I can see the possibility of getting sucked into this particular hole, but actually I would like to finish the structuring ritual. There are a few more steps. I will
The idea of structurelessness has become a Goddess in it's own rights
save it as a PDF. I used to save the PDF with crop marks when I used InDesign. In LibreOffice Calc im not sure if it's even possible, but more importantly I realised its not necessary. I use the mouse to click File > Export as PDF because I don't know the keyboard shortcut yet (or maybe I need to create one).
There is a section of the PDF Options dialogue called "Structure" which is interesting while listening to the Jo Freeman reading on the radio. Maybe I dont need to print it out actually, I can just listen to it. I suppose the argument is about becoming conscious of structure and not allowing smokescreens to remain. Even the informal structures are still there. If you destructure, what will be left in the wake? What will people build in the wreckage? Creating a power vacuum. The "PDF Options" Scturcture section has the following checkboxes:
The Structure must be explicit, not implicit
- Export outlines (default on)
- Comments as PDF annotations
- Comments in margin (greyed out, unavailable)
- Whole sheet export
- Export automatically inserted blank pages (greyed out, unavailable)
- Use reference XObjects
I have no idea what any of this structuring does. And I dont care. But I would like to remove the page title from the export. It is in another tab called User Interface. I also select only page 1 to save to PDF. Now I run into a software issue in this workflow: the best software for the next part of the job is Adobe Acrobat Pro. How aggressively do I want to remove this from the workflow? Not aggressively enough I guess because here I am still using it. I dont know any other software that really gives me details of how a document will print, and lets me edit PDFs on a more useful level than any other program.
For example the title still exported (it always does, LibreOffice bug or just I dont know what to do with the new software yet?). It takes two seconds to remove in edit more in Acrobat. I also delete the page number, I dont even know how to turn that off from LibreOffice. The print dialogue in Acrobat is also so powerful, its so easy to print actual size which is important to me. It is structured and reliable. I also want to print some books today but I think I'll do that later.