Expect Less

I got home last night from 4 nights of camping and backpacking on the Superior Hiking Trail on the north shore of Lake Superior. This week I have some cleaning up and throwing out to do to that will keep me on track for unloading things, and next weekend I’m heading to Seattle.

I’ve removed more items from my RSS feeds, now down to 93 feeds, some of which haven’t been updated in nearly a year (but which keep a tab on personal sites and so will remain in the reader).

We left Thursday after work to head up to our campsite, spent 4 days hiking about 36 miles through several state parks, from Cascade River south to Temperance River. After getting home and feeling no urgent desire to check my email or RSS (what a wonderful feeling) I did laundry, took a shower, and made dinner. Then I settled in an uploaded my photos before checking email and RSS. I had fewer items to check after 4 days away than I used to check in the course of a normal weekday. Granted, it was a holiday weekend here in the states, but the ease of checking everything out was incredible.

I still struggle with limiting my email checking, but I’m getting better. The most important next step is going to be keeping occupied during the day, whether it’s with projects, work, or other activities. I use email and RSS and Facebook and LinkedIn and Flickr to fill and pass my time, when there are other things I’d much rather be doing, but I feel like I need to be ‘working’.

Goals for the coming week include delivery of DVDs to my dad, selling a few more DVDs, reformatting my computers and preparing to sell them, throwing out or giving away unnecessary electronics gear, and donating used clothes. I’m doing some rough work on getting new projects under way, but the minimization process is a higher priority right now.