How to Identify Your Favorite Project Right Now

I wanted to name this article “How to Identify Your Candy Bar Game,” referring to a favorite project or activity you want to play like a game. But while checking if someone used the phrase in this context before, I found that it belonged to actual games where you guess the candy bars by their name, wrapper, or even how they look on the inside.

Therefore, to avoid misunderstandings, this story has a more straightforward title, because what I want to talk about here is your preferred activity right at this moment. A headline analyzer approved this choice.

Thus, let’s take a look at the following. What draws your attention? What are you “itching to do”? Which of your project “games” can’t you wait to start “playing” now?

Planning to play the game of writing this article and the actual playing (= writing), which occurs for me right now, turned out to be very different. That happens every time; I compose tens of unwritten drafts of a story in my head, and still, when I sit down to write, it often turns out to be surprisingly (and utterly so) different. Not better or worse. Just different. This story is not an exception.

Initially, I thought to report that writing, as in putting words on paper or screen, was my candy bar activity.

But then I received the edited manuscript of my latest book from my editor, and I simply couldn’t wait to find out how reading it would taste. So I abandoned all the thoughts of writing anything new — as well as unpacking after a weekend away visiting family, where the unpacking was surprisingly (or not so much) easier to forget — and printed the manuscript with the edit markings switched off.

Ah, I thought, this is my candy bar! Editing my written pieces.

I almost tasted the sweetness of the chocolate, as I had this realization. I reluctantly left the manuscript on my desk. I went on unpacking as well as folding the dry and clean laundry all but anticipating my (what looked like) favorite activity game of editing my own writing.

As I was folding away the clean shirts and socks, I remembered that I didn’t always enjoy editing my manuscripts. Sometimes I fretted that the revision process would take too long until it was good enough to send to the editor. There were plenty of other reasons to add to the fear and reluctance to revise and polish my work.

Hm, maybe my candy bar is reading my writing after it being edited by someone else?

OK, I thought further, I will do all I need to do today and tomorrow, and in the breaks, I will read the edited manuscript as a reward.

So after cooking dinner, doing more household chores, and putting our children to bed together with my husband, I made an espresso and set on to read one page of the manuscript.

I didn’t stop after one page, I read further.

I thought it was too tasty to stop.

But then I stopped, and on the margin of the manuscript of my new book, I made a note for the title of this article here. Even if my new book has to do with writing, too, it has nothing to do with this story.

OK, I told myself, I will work on the article later. Despite my intention to continue reading the edited manuscript and the belief that I still wanted to do it, I stopped concentrating on the text in front of me and started formulating the text of this story in my head.

Then it dawned on me. I have eaten my “reading a page candy bar,” savored it — and now it was gone. I would surely get the taste for this type of candy later. But now, the “writing a new article candy bar” was winking at me from my bowl of confectionery — activities I wanted or set up to do.

So, writing this article was my next candy bar to taste and savor!

And I must say it was delicious. I hope you liked it too.

You probably haven’t noticed, but there were many other candy bars for me to enjoy in addition to writing the first draft of this article, and until this point in time when you are reading it.

These included revising it, editing it with Grammarly, reading, and reworking again, searching for keywords and the appropriate image to feature it (sorry, I couldn’t choose between the two above, so I added both), formatting, and some more related tasks I might have forgotten.

But there were other activities, too — household chores, bringing children to school and kindergarten, picking one of them from the kindergarten, ironing, cleaning, taking time for my family, taking a break to bounce, dance, and breathe to take care of my aching joints, taking time to read books and articles by others, as well as my unpublished book, participate as an attendee at an inspiring webinar, work on a case study to feature an interview I will be giving next week, working on my next article or story, make a salad for each of my meals, cook dinner for the whole family, make espresso, drink water, sleep, etc.

All of these felt like super tasty candy bars when I gave each of them my full attention, as well as became aware when I finished one candy and had a taste for another.

Thus, I am now off to savor my next candy bar. Which is yours?

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About the author:

Victoria is a writer, instructor, and consultant with a background in semiconductor physics, electronic engineering (with a Ph.D.), information technology, and business development. While being a non-gamer, Victoria came up with the term Self-Gamification, a gameful and playful self-help approach bringing anthropology, kaizen, and gamification-based methods together to increase the quality of life. She approaches all areas of her life this way. Due to the fun she has, while turning everything in her life into games, she intends never to stop designing and playing them.