And it's all fun and games
I was whisked back to elementary school this past Friday when my game arrived.
I opened the Amazon box and the game was there.
I cracked open that box and separated the seventy-five numbered balls from their plastic molds, loading them into the cage as I did so.
I set the chips and cards aside. I wasn't planning to use them.
The metal tab on the opening to the cage was catching on the frame as I turned the crank. A few tries bending it back with some needle nose pliers and it was fixed.
Dispensing the bingo balls worked fine — until they started flying out from the little flip-cup that catches the next “call” and rolling across my office floor!
After trying unsuccessfully to adjust that cup, I realized that I wasn't turning the crank fast enough.
Once I picked up the pace, centrifugal force kept the balls in the cup until they made their way over to the delivery chute.
So no, I'm not picking up bingo.
I'm running an experiment to hack my energy to get more things done.
Sometimes — ok, regularly! — my energy flags. I'm working on my overall energy level.
In the meantime, though, I still want to move the needle. Rather than doomscroll or surf aimlessly when I'm at low energy, I want to do straightforward tasks that keep me at least a bit productive.
That's where the bingo ball cage comes in.
If I go to Facebook or TikTok, I know that I'm going to get cheap dopamine that will wake me up a bit. I also know that I'm going to slump afterwards, and it's going to be even harder to be productive.
The reason I bought a physical bingo ball cage instead of going to an online bingo number generator was that the physical cage engages my senses.
All the colors. All the rhythmic shuffling as I turn the crank. All of the balls coming out, one by one.
Basically, it's something appealing and fun to look forward to, as silly as that sounds.
What I get to do next is left to chance.
I've tied each letter in BINGO to a task that I know I should be doing, but one that's straightforward and one that doesn't require a whole lot of thought.
Since the balls come out in random order, I don't know which task I'll be doing next, so it's like a little micro-surprise each time. Fun, fun, fun!
It's like a little task vending machine. 🤣
B is for Broken
Getting a B ball means that I fix a post on my blog that has broken links. This is a search engine optimization task (SEO task) that improved the quality of the pages.
On my main blog, I have a little over 100 pages with broken links according to Ubersuggest. Mostly these are old affiliate links that don't point where they used to.
It takes a few minutes to fix up the links on one page.
I is for Internal
Getting an I ball means I add some internal links to and from a post that needs them.
This is another SEO task that improves the pages. More internal linking sends a signal to Google that the site and pages are well-maintained.
N is for Note
Getting an N ball means that I read one article in my to-read list and write a note to add value to my Obsidian vault.
I spend time linking the notes in my vault just fine, but I don't spend enough regular time adding notes. New notes are the raw fuel for a personal knowledge management system, and I've been starving it a bit. Hence my effort here to stop that.
G is for Get Moving
Getting a G ball means I get moving for a few minutes to get the blood pumping.
It could be going downstairs to take my coffee cups to the dishwasher, or taking the time to stretch. (Sitting is the new smoking, after all.)
I plan to add some in-place dumbbell workouts.
Any movement at all helps me to regain some focus and some energy.
O is for Organize
Getting an O ball means I organize my office for a few minutes.
A messy desk and a messy office weigh on me. Picking up things and putting them in their place lighten up my mood and clear my head a little.
Don't be afraid to experiment.
The more I gravitate toward low-energy tasking, the less I gravitate to my phone when I'm low-energy.
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Photo by Joe Myrick on Unsplash