Monday, February 20, 2017
I find myself occasionally in these cycles where I'm faced with two piles of work.
I find myself occasionally in these cycles where I'm faced with two piles of work. Pile A is a bunch of stuff I really don't enjoy, so I procrastinate and put off doing it. Pile B is a bunch of stuff I enjoy, but I feel like doing that instead of A is selfish and irresponsible, so I put it off until I get pile A done. Then I look at pile A and think "Ugh!" and procrastinate a bit more. Those are not healthy work cycles.
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LEGO Americana Roadshow: Building Across America I just checked out this traveling exhibition from LEGO and was quite impressed. The scale ... -
Merry Christmas, everyone!
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When we let politics trump science, people are needlessly put in harm's way. http://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/self-censoring-fears...
Schedule several hours a day for each. Pop it in ur calendar..... Only 1 snooze allowed. Should have done this on fiver!
ReplyDeleteGet out of my head.
ReplyDeleteAh!! That's a great explanation of the issue I'm having right now. And I was discussing it with someone else having the same issue. We came to a conclusion: use B as the reward for doing A. If A is editing a book already written, but B is writing the new book that you're excited about, then for every two chapters you edit of A, you get to write one chapter of B. Before long, they're both done.
ReplyDeleteBut, yes, self-discipline may be the key to successful home-based/freelance/self-employed businesses. But it's not very fun, is it?
Every year around this time, my pile A is organizing my tax records for delivery to my accountant. Last Sunday, I got to the point where I couldn't focus on anything else as long as that task kept staring me in the face, so I just dealt with it. I need to force myself to deal with it earlier next year; finishing it relieves a huge weight of stress.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I include another variable for organisation; time sensitivity. If neither pile A nor pile B contain time sensitive items, I can pick from either freely until something comes up with a time component that takes priority.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't everyone fight that battle?
ReplyDeleteSo in other words, you're human :)
ReplyDeleteI find if I just go ahead and start on some Pile B stuff, at least I'm getting something done, and the sense of accomplishment adds some joy to doing Pile A stuff.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's not just time, but strength or other resources that are limiting what I can get to. You have to take care of your health also, and sometimes that means procrastination.
I sandwich.
ReplyDeleteI am presently developing something.
I separated the modules, which can be coded almost independently, in 3 types:
- the tough ones: there are 5
- the easy and interesting ones: there are 8
- the easy and boring ones: there are 7
I am following this rules: work to complete 20% of an easy boring, then 10% of a tough and 20% of an easy interesting and start again...
After 20 years in the US Submarine Force, 7 years as a manager for Computer Sciences Raytheon at Cape Canaveral and 21 years in the wealth management profession, the solution to time management comes down to one question you need to frequently ask yourself. "Is what I am doing at this moment contributing to my vision, mission, goals or objectives?" If the answer is no, then there may be a more important or productive activity I should be focused on. Next, to prioritize, decide if the activity is urgent or important. The highest leverage activities are both urgent and important (putting out fires) and not urgent but important (strategic longer-term stuff). The not important stuff should be minimized, regardless of its perceived urgency. There is nothing beyond your reach, the impossible just takes longer.
ReplyDelete