I won't belabor how long it's been since I last posted. The benefit (and curse) of having no readers yet is that it doesn't really matter whether I post or not. It only benefits me to keep that commitment to myself - but if I've made a commitment elsewhere for the same larger goal, I know I haven't betrayed myself.

Case in point, I've taken my idea of the 8-Year Plan and run with it. I've developed and am currently testing a personal goal attainment system that I call EoS - Eon orbit Sol - or potentially eOS - the everything Operating System.

The concept is about decoupling from the consensus idea of time that society follows, and having a separate sense of time that is based on you and your goals. The Eon is the period of 10 years that includes 8 years to enact my vision, and 2 years at the end to reflect and plan for the next Eon. You can think of the Sol as your "soul sun" - your body of work that is your gravitational center and the locus around which you base your personal concept of time.

The Eon

The Eon consists of four Eras that span two years each, plus a fifth non-Era that serves as the liminal space between Eons.

Each Era consists of eight Epochs, which are 3 months long each.

I know - all I've done so far is take existing time units (2 years, 3-month quarters, etc.) and rename them. These next, smaller units is where it starts to get interesting.

Ages come four to an Epoch, four weeks per Age, and they overlap weeks within that Epoch. So the last week in the first Age overlaps with the first week in the next Age, and so on - but only within the same Epoch. So the first week of the First Age does not overlap with the last week of the last Age of the previous Epoch, and the last week of the last Age does not overlap with the first week of the first Age of the next Epoch.

And weeks are not weeks, but Tetras, which consist of four Days that can be allocated as time allows to any of the seven days of the regular week. And Days each have four Hours, which can be allocated as time allows within the confines of a normal 24-hour day.

This odd structure accomplishes the following things:

• It adheres to the fourfold scaffolding that my mind finds so comfortable to build from, making it easy for me to break goals into fourfold projects, fourfold tasks, etc.
• It breaks with the consensus awareness of time, putting me in an alternate reality where time units are not based on astronomical phenomena, but progress based on events (like the geological phenomena that this naming convention was inspired by).
• It offers flexibility in scheduling, ie. the best four days out of the week for my schedule, and the best four hours out of my day
• It provides a smooth transition from one Age to the next, giving a grace period to polish off anything outstanding from the current Age and perform retro- and proto-spectives before diving heavily into the next Age.

This is primarily a tool that I'm using for aSoS, but it has its value for other areas of life as well. I'm testing all these use cases simultaneously at this time.

The Sol

Whereas the Eon is a time-based theme, the Sol is a space-based theme. Imagine a solar system of your notes and content, a specialized "second brain" that orbits around the Sol of the projects you're bringing to life. This is my personal take on the Zettelkasten system.

And like the Zettelkasten system, there are distinct note types. For my purposes, there are Sun notes, Moon notes, and Star notes.

Sun notes are like evergreen notes - content that stays relevant and therefore may evolve as the window of relevance shifts or resizes.

Star notes are like fleeting notes, permanent notes or literature notes. They are numerous and they occupy a certain space in the night sky, shining on their own or as part of a constellation. They are like the seeds or the sprouts to the evergreens.

Moon notes are my own invention, though the concept is familiar. In contrast to the evergreen content of the Sun notes, Moon notes are like hardwoods - seasonal and cyclical. From a practical standpoint, these are the releases, the hard deliverables, that take the knowledge base provided by the Sun notes and makes them into products.

All types of notes are categorized into a series of 32 combinations of four Spheres. These Spheres are Phase, Works, Stage and Craft. Combinations of these Spheres may include Pw (Phase + Works), Spw (Stage + Phase + Works), Wpsc (Works + Phase + Stage + Craft) and so on.

Continuing the space theme, these can be thought of as Planets. In contrast to the Zettelkasten practice of cataloguing notes according to their categories, notes in Sol are categorized according to their place in my journey of creation.

Will it work for anyone or anything?

I don't even know with absolute certainty if this EoS/eOS system will work for me and my project needs, much less anyone else and their projects. But I'm working with it now to find that out.

If I find that it's helpful, I'll refine it and make it available to others. Based on user feedback, I'll refine it further and continue iterating as I go forward.

And as you might be able to tell from the image, it's a system best adapted to digital note-taking devices such as e-ink tablets. I'm currently testing out different workflows on the reMarkable, Supernote, Boox and Viwoods platforms.