As promised, here’s an insight into the workings of a neoliberal mind.
Gamify everything.
Break the day up into segments and use every segment to advance your individual goals. What those are, I don’t know. Everybody has their own. Maybe you are writing a novel. Or learning a language. Or trying to become a better parent, achieve inner peace, improve your health, increase your earning potential. I don’t know what it is but each segment of your day should include something that brings you closer to that goal.
I have a meeting at two. I’ll bring a list of German words and work on memorizing them while everybody is dying of boredom, listening to a bureaucrat du jour drone one about paperwork. Then I’ll conjugate some words and write a little composition in German. I’ll leave the meeting wide awake and intellectually ready for something more challenging.
Afterwards, I have to talk on the phone to an elderly relative and listen to her 20-minute description of her medical procedure. I’ll use that time to get in a couple thousand steps for my step challenge. I’ll be much more patient with the elderly relative and more eager to hear all the details because I’m doing something for myself during the conversation. Something health-related, which makes it less anxiety-inducing to hear about medical procedures.
Stop between segments and ask, what did I do for myself in the past hour? What will I do in the next? What benefit can I derive from this next activity? How can I make it into a game?
This shit is so engrossing, I was at the dentist’s yesterday for a long procedure, and they had to tell me several times they were done and I could leave.
By the way, have you tried saying “überqueren Sie die Straße” after several shots of anaesthetic into the roof of your mouth? If that’s not a fun, unusual challenge, I don’t know what is.
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