Dopamine Hits and Christmas Gifts

I had an epiphany yesterday. Perhaps this is obvious to other people, but I needed to have it laid out for me. I ran across an article explaining that productivity—making to-do lists and crossing items off as they are completed—results in a dopamine hit similar to the kind that people get from “likes” on social media.

The day started by me saying to to the husband, “I need to look at my to-do list and figure out which of the 5000 items on it I am going to tackle today.” I spent an hour working on the Noon and Night pattern, making and adding in some graphics. Making graphics is my least favorite part of pattern writing, so having gotten that done was hugely satisfying. I then got out the practice squares to play around with the quilting. I wanted to see if I could quilt straight echo lines around the inside and outside of the stars without having a ruler foot and ruler.

I can, and they look reasonably good:

I did it by using the edge of the quilting foot of the Q20 as the guide. I don’t know when that ruler foot I ordered is going to come in, and I don’t want to hold up the pattern waiting for it.

My practice quilt sandwiches only have one layer of cotton batting and I thought they looked rather flat. Tera had suggested using two layers of batting—one cotton, one wool—in the quilt. I decided it was time to baste Noon and Night, as the backing has been hanging over the fence in the hallway for several weeks. I cleared a space on the bedroom floor, put on an Angela Walters YouTube video about backing, batting, and basting, and started layering the quilt.

Adding the wool batting absolutely is the right way to go. Combined with the outline stitching, it is going to add the depth I need to make the stars pop when they are quilted. I basted my last prototype square together with the same black cotton batting and layer of wool batting that are in the quilt, and I’ll use that to fine tune the tension before I start working on the quilt.

After lunch, I wanted to quilt. I’ve got four tops basted, including another Candy Coated, so I pulled out that one and started quilting loops. My goodness. Loops go much faster than paisleys. I worked for about two hours and got one half of the quilt finished. And after dinner, I sat and worked on the binding of the cream/white Candy Coated.

It was then that the realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

I am addicted to productivity in the same way that some people are addicted to Twitter. And no, I am not making light of addiction, before anyone leaps in to scold me. Any kind of addiction can become a negative in someone’s life, including that of being addicted to work. My days consist of me chasing down dopamine hits—not on social media, but on my to-do list. I think that’s mostly a positive thing, but I need to be careful not to let it get out of hand. And the husband is no help here, as he spent his day out in the new shop tackling his list of items needing attention. His only comment was, “There are worse problems to have.” We are two productive peas in a pod.

The latest Unloose the Goose podcast focused on mental health. I applaud them for taking on such an important topic, esepcially one that I think has been sorely neglected during this pandemic.

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I received some lovely Christmas gifts yesterday. Our neighbor, Theresa, stopped by with this beautiful basket she put together:

She made the Christmas tree. It’s lovely! I am tickled by the mug with the truck, as our plow truck is red. The basket also contained all the ingredients for several luxurious cups of hot chocolate.

And Ali and her little guy stopped over with a jar of homemade muesli—which I am eating as I write this—some pretzels dipped in chocolate, and a bottle of whiskey (she knows me well!). The muesli is full of good things like pumpkin seeds, currants, walnuts, pecans, and shredded coconut.

I love our little community here on the corner.