A "continuity log" is a text document that is designed to help me remember what I was doing previously. It has to:
- remind me what the overall scope was for the action I was doing
- help me reconstruct my train of thought that day
- remind me where to find assets
- provide instructions to recreate the conditions of that day
- provide "next steps" at the end of the session.
As it could be days, weeks, or months between sessions, the continuity log should be as concise as possible so reading back through several days will provide an accurate reconstruction of the overall project.
The continuity log is also typically a "stream of consciousness" AKA SOC log, which is the messier "typing as I do" log. At the end of a working session, I have to discipline myself to summarize the messy typing of the day (stream of consciousness) into something concise and usable (continuity).
Followup Thoughts
Posted Sunday, Feb 19 2023
This morning I realized that I spend a huge amount of energy just "holding on" to continuity.
Theory: I'm trying to maintain the FEELING+CERTAINTY of daily purpose, in pursuit of beneficial CLOSURE for hundreds of open questions. My working model of "focus" is to pick just a few at a time so I don't go crazy, then compress them into CONCEPTS. Requires mindful self-care.
The "holding on" is not #ADHD or #ASD (it's just life?), but the approach is maybe related?
Holding on to continuity, though, is one of the challenge of #ADHD; focus tends to come through external motivational anchors because internal ones don't persist. They just float away. That's why I have to write everything down, but I also have to reconstruct focus CONSTANTLY which is time consuming.
I think my #ASD systemizing and sense-making circuitry is trying its darndest to make up for it, because it ABHORS unreliability and uncertainty in my daily operations. This is an anchor?
So, this morning I am thinking of what I can engineer to specifically address rapid reconstruction of continuity. I have very SLOW methods right now, and they are also BORING...my guess is that it's the ASD desire for Comprehensive System Consistency that pushes me through the boring part.
So, this is an exercise in selecting mechanics, given the constraints I've sketched out above.