Spinster Strategy: Digital Time Capsules
Waiting is hard for me, and sometimes the wait is longer than a run on the treadmill, a supermarket line, or an Amy's Meal's suggested cooling time. Sometimes it's months. Sometimes it's years. However, recently I have devised a plan that I like to call "Digital Time Capsules."
Strictly speaking, these don't work like real time capsules. You don't go in search of them to dig them up. However, I'll stop talking about what this plan isn't, and just tell you what it is. The plan has five steps:
1. Pick the date to which you're looking forward and mark it on your google (or other digital) calendar.
2. Figure out how many days you have from that date to today.
3. Enter the corresponding number to each day in its respective box on the calendar as an "all day event," so that your calendar would read 10, 9, 8, and so forth.
4. Edit your events:
This is actually the meat of the plan. When I do this, I like to number all the days first and then go back later. Say, for example, I was counting down to my thirtieth birthday. That's about a year and a half away. So, I'd number all the days, and then whenever the mood struck me, I'd go in and change my preference for any particular day (say, perhaps, day #234). In day 234, I'd write a little message to myself under the "details" section. The message could be encouraging or silly or a link to a kitten gif or a reminder that my friend's birthday is in three days. Sometimes I'll just go to whatever day is 365 days from the day i'm writing and write myself a little note about what was happening on this day a year ago. Then, I change the color of the day, and I change the notification from "pop up" to "email."
5. Receive a message from yourself:
So, the idea here is that I'll forget all the things I wrote, but since they're from me, they'll probably be things I'll enjoy. I know for sure I've sent myself pictures of kittens, and who knows? I may just really need to see a cute, fluffy kitten the day that email gets delivered.
So, I'm guessing I'll be keeping you up to date on how the digital time capsule is working. Today I entered a few writing prompts for what seems like an eternity from today. We'll see if I still think they're such a good idea when I open them. Only time will tell!
