By finding technical tools like the SRS that make it easier to avoid pain, and psychological tools like birthlines and timeboxes that help us change the way we feel about the work we are doing, and by understanding human behavior and learning how to manipulate yourself into doing what you want yourself to do, with the least pain possible, we can develop a healthy attitude toward work until one day maybe 遊ぶ　and　働く are synonyms instead of antonyms.

Deadlines seem to encourage people to think of a project as one big, complicated wad of achievement, rather than a series of small, easy wins. Then when there’s a hard “end” time with no set “start” time, the problem is compounded in a weird way: the person has just made the task super-daunting AND easy to put off. He’s pretty much telling himself, “I can begin any time as long as it’s before this date.”

As you quoted in an earlier tweet, “what may be done at any time will be done at no time.” Or rather, with a deadline, it will be done at the last possible minute, in a marathon of panic and self-flagellation. Whee!

Birthlines sound far more useful, as well as more fun/pleasant. Lookin’ forward to your upcoming articles about them!

…For now, thinking of your Player Model (from Potheads, Planners and Players), I think I’ll call mine “spawn points.” 😀

I would call them “Newlines” – easier to pronounce.