Satisfaction Index

I am a list maker, a checker-offer of items on to do lists. Part of it comes from being a litigation attorney for so long but it's also just my nature.

This past year I've struggled to come up with a way to try to measure whether I'm writing enough and how to balance that with other things I want to do, like exercise or cook or just goof around.

A month or so ago I came up with something I called the "Satisfaction Index" to help me track this. It's such a niggling, bean-counting approach I am almost embarrassed to share it. But it seems to work for me so I'll put myself on the line. Here's how it works: I need to accomplish 800 points a week.

So how do I "earn" a point? A point is a word written, a page edited, a minute exercised, a minute playing the piano. There are some refinements that I've had to make to have the balance work. For example, a word written is actually only worth a tenth of a point. And since walking for exercise is so much less strenuous than anything else I do a minute of walking is only worth half a point. In rough terms it comes down to what I've been trying to do all year -- write 1,000 words five days a week and exercise an hour a day five days a week. See 5,000 words computes to 500 points and 60 minutes of exercise five days a week is 300 points, thus equalling the magic 800. I added in playing the piano just to encourage me to do that more.

Maybe an illustration of this week so far will work best:

Saturday - piano 45 minutes (45)
write 2910 words (291)
Sunday -- piano 25 minutes (25)
Monday -- write 1040 words (104)
Tuesday (so far) -- gym 95 minutes (95)

Thus, a total of 560 so far.

I know, I know. It's kind of creepy. But it seems to help me keep in balance, so I'll stick to it for a while.