My Kind of Sudoku
How I prefer my mental challenges
Spreadsheet shenanigans
My wife entered the room as I was working on a spreadsheet. She could tell that I was frustrated and had run up against a challenge. As it was a weekend and there was no project that required my attention from work, she asked me what I was working on. I told her it was just a spreadsheet I was updating for my personal benefit.
She wondered why in the world I would allow myself to get so annoyed by a personal project that was not “required”. I explained that I enjoyed the challenge. It was like a game, but it was still quite frustrating when things did not work out as I expected.
You see, months ago, I had created a spreadsheet to estimate my paycheck based on a number of factors. Spreadsheets are fun to me. I love working with data and creating new and interesting ways of displaying it or interpreting it.
My idea was fairly simple in the beginning. I simply wanted to input my gross salary, which is standard as a salaried employee, and determine what my net income would be that would get deposited into my bank account. This required multiple calculations such as pre-tax benefits, taxed benefits, social security and medicare considerations, along with my federal taxes.
I really wanted a spreadsheet that I could manipulate with scenarios such as what it would look like if I increased my 401K contributions, received a salary increase, or changed my tax situation. All of these things change multiple aspects of the bottom line. There is a lot of complicated calculation involved.
Consider the federal tax calculation alone. The American federal tax is progressive and graded, so your tax liability changes depending on how much income you make. I’ll reserve my comments here on the need for a flat tax, or at the very least some serious tax code reform in this country.
I had to pull out the tax tables for my filing status and then create the logic that would reference those tables and determine my tax liability. It was necessary to account for changes in the amount of social security due, or when to apply additional medicare tax. I made so many mistakes throughout the process, but it was fun to challenge my ability to rise to the occasion and find solutions.
Unique approaches to mental stimulation
Everyone needs time to let their mind rest. It is also important for people to find ways to stimulate their minds. For some of us, we find rest in the times where our minds are most stimulated.
Perhaps it is my ADHD that causes me to seek out this type of mental stimulation for enjoyment. I enjoy setting aside time to work on our finances and track our spending. Some people would find this mundane. I enjoy the analysis and making decisions based on what I see.
This has been a very useful attribute for me, as I have spent most of my career analyzing data. My hobby can be applied to almost every aspect of life. But not all people enjoy the same activities.
My wife enjoys doing Sudoku. Is that how you refer to it? Doing Sudoku. Working Sudoku. I don’t know. She likes arbitrarily putting numbers in boxes on a sheet of paper. I have no idea what the appeal is.
Working with spreadsheets is like Sudoku for me. It is my daily crossword puzzle to keep my mind sharp. I am sure many of my readers have similar ways of challenging their mental sharpness on a regular basis. Many of these activities are a form of enjoyment for them as well.
One way some guys impress their wife is by helping out around the house and doing the dishes. Perhaps they will spend a few minutes vacuuming around the house. I will let you in on a little secret. I love doing those mundane tasks as well.
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT believe that household chores are for women only. I only make the comment above because so many people do. Therefore, many men do these tasks to win brownie points with their wives when they should be helping out all along.
Because my mind is always racing and thinking of tasks that need to get done or projects that I want to work on, I rarely have the ability to focus on the task at hand. Washing dishes really doesn’t require my complete focus (unless I am washing knives). Vacuuming can be done while you daydream or plan.
Conclusion
When it comes to the things in life that make us happy and bring us mental stimulation, everyone is somewhat unique. Some of our hobbies can be as fulfilling as they are frustrating at times. Have you ever seen someone jab their finger with a needle while sewing, or mess up a row of crochet stitches and have to go back and start over?
The important thing for each of us to do is find things that make us happy. Find a hobby, and challenge yourself to learn something new. There is always something new to invest in, whether it be extending your interest in a hobby or gaining a new one.
I would be very interested in learning the ways my readers are stimulating their minds. Do you enjoy a good book? How many of you really get excited over a complicated spreadsheet design? Anyone? Anyone?
