If you're immersed in popular culture, you probably Marie Kondo. I myself am only lampreyed onto most popular culture, but I still absorbed her basic tenet of ridding oneself of everything except things that spark joy.
I'm not really one for decluttering. I'm not terribly messy—actually, the areas I spend my most time in are aggressively organized—but I am a hereditary pack rat, and I will commit crimes before getting rid of some of my stuff.
But my time... well, that could use some decluttering.
I've tried rigorous schedules and journaling to track my time. But schedules are impossible with a family as large and chaotic as mine, and while journaling was helpful to gather information, it also fed the part of me that needs to be perfect.
Although therapy has helped me vastly improve how I deal with that pressure, I'm also a learning a new trick. See, schedules and journaling were often about avoiding things I don't want to do.
But what if I just lean into the things I like.
It's basically the Marie Kondo method set in reverse and applied to my time. What activities give me joy? Well, let's do more of those! It's not that scrolling social media is bad (or makes me a bad person), it's that reading books makes me feel good! And watching TV with my kids! And playing Silksong!
Through this process, I'm also discovering that I really, really like playing tabletop RPGs. I said to some friends recently that I think ttRPGs might be my favorite form of game. That's saying a lot for someone who thought they sucked at improv and who gets nervous every time they run a game!
The point is, what if instead of being afraid of the "bad" things, I chose to do more of the good?
The more I do this, the more I find that the joy I get from these activities will even carry me through periods where I don't get that joy—tedium from work, boredom on a long drive, even a brief period spent doomscrolling... The guilt of these has less claim over me when I feel good about how I spent the rest of my time. (It turns out that joy is also, you know, a great way to fight fascism.)
So, where do you find joy? How has seeking it out affected your own life?
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