Quantifiable Living: Selves-frazzlement scale

Emotion: Frazzlement due to over-busyness

Units of measure: Selves

How it works: Frazzlement (anxiety) levels can be measured in the number of selves that would be required to allow you to take a Caribbean vacation without guilt.

Selves should be measured with the original-you calibrated at zero. Thus, if you are currently taking a guilt-free Caribbean vacation, your frazzlement level is at 0 selves.

A typical day would require at least one self to free you for a Caribbean vacation. The number of selves required on any given day for frazzle-free vacationing should be calibrated by attempting to imagine a schedule for each self that would allow the multiple selves to feel capable and useful but not overwhelmed.

Example:
You have to pick up a jar of peanut butter from the store: 1 self
You have three newspapers to put out at once: 5 selves
You have to fill out insurance forms, pick up a child from daycare, take out the trash and clean the bathroom all at once: 7 selves (with 3 for the forms)

It is unnecessary to calibrate the scale for personal laziness or sour dispositions, as these are legitimate considerations in determining subjective frazzlement levels. However, pity levels for particularly lazy, sour or high-strung individuals may be calibrated according to personal criteria. (Levels of pity will not necessarily correlate to number of selves.)

Limits: Particularly guilt-ridden people will find this scale useless, as their dispositions likely render them incapable of taking a Caribbean vacation without guilt.

People who hate the beach, the Caribbean or vacations in general may have difficulty using this scale.

Travel time, expense and the potential stress created by booking and embarking on a Caribbean vacation should not be considered in the frazzlement scale.

Elaborations: This scale is flexible and may be useful for partial days as well as averaged over whole days, weeks or months.

Mode and mean are both relevant measurements for frazzlement, as it is legitimate and useful to discuss both the highest number of selves necessary in any given day as well as the average number of selves you would need to experience a guilt-free lay-out on a Caribbean beach.