John's goal for the 2020s: do fewer things the world calls work (2019)
story · status: followed over 3 videos (2019–2020) · last event: update (2020-12-29)
In November 2019 John set his goal for the 2020s: do fewer things the world calls work, made concrete in January 2020 as no work on weekends and at most one night a week. By the end of 2020 he said the goal had failed once he began looking after his children's schooling from March 2020.
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-11-26 | told | John says his central goal for the next decade is to do fewer things the world constructs as work and more valuable things not imagined as work: family time, dishes, sleep, reading, volunteering. | old fashioned parts video 00:00:32 |
| 2020-01-07 | update | John wants to stop working at night and on weekends: to keep the goal specific, measurable and achievable, no more than one night a week and never weekends except work travel. | Endings · Beginnings 00:01:36 |
| 2020-12-29 (happened 2020-03) | update | John's goal of no longer working nights or weekends failed: from March he became a part-time e-learning consultant to his two young children and worked when alone and awake, which was rarely, grateful to have work. (playful) | Looking Back at My 2020 Goals 00:01:27 |
What is said about it
7 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2019-11-26 · old fashioned parts video — John says he is saying the goal out loud in the hope that it will make him accountable. — 00:00:47
- 2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — John notes that every new beginning leads to some other beginning's end, quoting Semisonic by way of the Stoic philosopher Seneca. (playful) — 00:01:46
- 2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — ask: John says he will be on tour with Hank in St. Petersburg, Atlanta and Raleigh this weekend and invites viewers; he thinks one show is sold out. — 00:02:02
- 2020-12-29 · Looking Back at My 2020 Goals — John: Sarah's book You Are an Artist and Hank's A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor both came out, but the touring John planned for them did not happen. — 00:01:56
- 2020-12-29 · Looking Back at My 2020 Goals — John cancelled over 40 flights in 2020 and has gone nine months and counting without visiting an airport, his longest such streak in over 29 years. — 00:02:02
- 2020-12-29 · Looking Back at My 2020 Goals — John: Not flying made John realize that many trips he thought inevitable or necessary are in fact neither. — 00:02:12
- 2020-12-29 · Looking Back at My 2020 Goals — John's small goals, exercising at least 150 minutes a week and making Dear Hank and John every Monday and a Vlogbrothers video every Tuesday, were not easy, but he did them. — 00:02:19