What to do? Make money!

Posted on February 15, 2024  •  6 minutes  • 1145 words

A money list instead of a to-do list

My job revolves around the internet. I earn my living by working on my laptop from the comfort of my chair. However, I face a significant issue: I get easily distracted by trivial matters such as forums, news, blogs, and instant messaging. I wish to stay informed, yet I struggle to accomplish much. Creating to-do lists doesn’t seem to help much; their effectiveness wears off in just three days at most. I can spend weeks dragging out a single task. How can I start to focus my attention without getting sidetracked by the little things? [Richard]

Here’s the issue, which I must admit is relevant to me as well because the internet is also my workplace. Just like described, I face the same problem: chatting on instant messaging, reading RSS feeds, discussing the latest on the “Terminator” blog, responding to emails, but the work that promises me a “salary” remains untouched. Not even started.

And it turns out, this is a very common problem. Off the top of my head, I recall another similar situation that I came across on a tech forum.

You plan to finish coding your program, but by the end of the day, not a single line is written. Instead, you’ve read through tech forums, spent time on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, engaged in a lot of pointless chatting on instant messaging, and so on, all in the same vein. It seems there was a goal and the desire, but here it is – the result.

I can’t imagine how to-do lists could help in this situation.

Clearly, if you have five hundred different tasks, a to-do list is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, you might forget something or mix up priorities.

But if there’s only one task (write an article, code a hundred lines, translate an article, etc.), forgetting it is virtually impossible. Even if you wanted to forget it, you couldn’t.

It’s like a nagging spouse constantly reminding you: “take out the trash, take out the trash, would you finally take out the trash, darn it!”

So tell me, how would a to-do reminder that I absolutely must, darn it, take out the trash help me?

I already know I should. But there’s the latest “Harry Potter” discussion, and Samantha just popped up in instant messaging. I’ll throw in my two cents on Potter, have a chat with Samantha, and then I’ll get to the task.

And so it would continue, God knows how long, if not for the crisis.

What to do? Make money!

The crisis, damn it, has put everything in its place.

What does it mean, important tasks? And what are the unimportant ones?

I want to talk about Harry Potter so badly that I can’t eat, can’t sleep, I just need to talk about it.

But writing an article? Coding? Routine. Monotony. Boredom. It needs to be done. It must. But it’s like eating oats instead of cashews in chocolate. Willpower lasted for a day or two, and then back to bingeing on chocolate!

And here’s what I did.

I “converted” all my tasks – the nagging and Potter-related, important and unimportant, desired and undesired – into real money. Into cash.

“Transformers” – cool. Michael Bay – that’s power. But what do I get from it?

Samantha shows up in instant messaging. Hooray, hooray, hooray! But what do I get from it?

Nearly a thousand new posts in the RSS feed.

Time leechers

But what do I get from it?

Zilch. Nada. Zero.

“Can everyone see?” as one humorist would say, showing zilch. “Well, if the back can’t see, the front will show them later.”

It’s comforting to talk about “Transformers”. It’s nice to chat with Samantha. But what am I going to eat, pardon my frankness?

And then, you know, sneaky thoughts started creeping into my head.

Take “Transformers,” for example. Did I watch them? Yes, I did. Do I get anything from it? No.

Moreover, even if I had watched them for free, I (in terms of cash) would have gained nothing from it.

I bought a movie ticket. One. I spent time watching it. Two. I discussed it on my blog, sharing my impressions. Three.

Of course, one might say I gained experiences (which aren’t carrots and can’t be bought in a store), but let me repeat: look at it from the perspective of pure profit. Michael Bay will, foreseeably, be eating black caviar, riding in a Bentley, and furnishing a new villa in California with red furniture, obviously. And me? It turns out, I’m working for Michael Bay. For free.

I bought his movie ticket. I’m advertising him on my blog for free. Enjoy your sweet life, dear Bay (sorry, Bay, I misspoke). And me? I’m left chewing on crackers. And the impressions from watching.

Or take Samantha. We really had a good, heartfelt talk. But there’s nothing to eat. And it’s particularly irritating not knowing how things will be tomorrow.

I can survive without black caviar, obviously during a crisis, savings are necessary, but what if tomorrow we have to save on oil, and the day after on bread?

The second thought is just as sneaky as the first. Here I am, for instance, scrolling through a thousand posts in my RSS. Read some. Downloaded some. Right?

And the result? The front rows will show if you can’t see, I remind you.

But those people who created that feed, who posted and wrote news, they at least made a penny that day.

Someone completed an advertising order. Someone increased their project’s traffic. Someone collected bonuses from hosting sites.

And so on.

And me? It turns out, I worked for them. For free.

Useful idiot

So, Samantha, as director Robert Libenson says, “goodbye”.

RSS – goodbye, emails about “how’s life, what’s up” – goodbye! I’m off to write an article, they pay me 100 euros for it.

The only metric – the material benefit of any action.

Profitable? I’m on it!

Only for profit

Not? I won’t even move a mouse.

Of course, converting every action into profit is impossible. But that’s not necessary.

Profit can be direct. It can be indirect. And the first isn’t always better than the second.

What’s more profitable: perform on TV for free or write an article for 100 euros?

I suppose it’s obvious that the former is. Even though it doesn’t promise “direct” money.

The main thing is that any action, one way or another, works towards profit.

That it’s profitable.

“Money Do,” excuse my English! Do what makes money.

As the main character of the movie “The Deer Hunter” said, “that’s the kind of capitalist scum I am, brothers.”

Thank you to the author of the article, a member of the ScienceChronicle.org team, Ph.D. in Psychology, Roberta Adler. Your insights and expertise are greatly appreciated.

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