Deadline but in an achievable gentle way
It's a month until my birthday which is a good deadline and a good amount of time so I'm thinking about what I can get done before then as a sort of birthday present to myself. Achievable, gentle things.
First present: an organised junk spare room. Did a flurry of work on that a while ago and it ebbed. A month of slightly more sustained effort and it should be done. And it's something Future Me will really appreciate not having to do.
Second present: a project. I'd had this idea to work on a public domain book, which I have adapted slightly to writing up a sort of appendices for it, and putting it online. I've already set up the website, because I can't help myself. So I've got a month to read it again, taking notes and posting them. This seems achievable because it's very step-by-step. We'll see.
These are very modest ambitions but will make a big impact. The spare room will at least be one less nagging thought I'm dragging around with me. The book will feel like an achievement. And modest is good. I like modest. Finishing things is not my forte and I do want to finish them. Plus there's enough other stuff I've got going on that I don't want to squeeze out. I'm more 'variety is the spice of life' than 'beast mode'.
No doubt in a month I could aim to write a novel, lose whatever amount of weight, read however many books, do Couch to 5k. But do I want to? Do I need to? No.