One time some years ago I found myself with too little time to dedicate to all my interests. Every bit of time that I spent on, say, cinema, was biting into ava

One time some years ago I found myself with too little time to dedicate to all my interests. Every bit of time that I spent on, say, cinema, was biting into available time for say, electronics, or cooking improvement. I grew frustrated. So I sat with a pencil and a sheet of paper and wrote throughout the paper things that interested me. Then I linked all the related things together with lines, and ended up with my graph of interests. Things that, on contrast with those already in the paper, were too supeficial, I didn't write; and I wrote about 30-40 of them. It was more illuminating that I initially thought! As I now had a clear mental image of how all interacted, and where the center of my interests laid. So little by little I started seeing the more fringe interests as what they were, and even as a function of their "path from the center". I started dedicating more time to the central thesis, and the fringes helped me gain new perspectives on the main "leit motiv". And eventually I had an idea that resulted from all of that. Now it is the basis of my main side project. I do play from time to time with the rest, and the center is moving around a little bit, but there is a strong focus on reaching the goals that most interest me. (Sorry if this ended up a little bit too abstract and vague; I hope it helps!)