Tuesday 17th August 2021 

So the plan today was to work on the ONE THING I needed to get done today and see how fulfilled I felt at the end of it. 

Normally I have a bunch of tasks, as well as daily activities like writing.  I’ll roughly schedule them throughout the day and try and get them all done.  Anything not completed gets rescheduled. 

The downside to this is that the deep work – the stuff that needs a bit of focus – ends up getting put off and off.  I’ve recently tried to combat this by breaking those oft-delayed tasks into smaller chunks by asking myself what the minimum I could do today to move that project forward. 

But, as I mentioned yesterday, I came across the idea of having a ‘task of the day’ where the aim is to get a singular task done.  For me, the question then became… which would leave me feeling more accomplished – focusing on a single task for the day or doing a bunch of easier tasks. 

So I tried it today with a big piece of writing I have to get completed, that I’ve got myself thoroughly confused over.  Having dedicated time was definitely good and I did make some serious progress, but at the same time, I didn’t feel I had a productive day. 

Part of the reason for this is that if I usually need to step away from a big task, I can either recharge through a bit of gaming for 20 minutes, or I could do another easy task and get the satisfaction of having ticked another item off the list.  With this method, I felt that all was left to me was gaming, even when I didn’t really feel it was something I needed to do.  Consequently, I felt I played games too much and didn’t do enough work. 

Yet,  I moved a task forward that has been stalled for weeks.  I gave myself the space to think about it, walk away and come back to it.  And whilst it might have cost me time I could have spent on smaller, easier tasks, the dedicated focus meant that I was slowly able to break the back of this. 

My takeaway from this is simply that it’s a technique to be deployed when stuck.  If a project seriously stalls, I’ll just dedicate a day to it and try and break the back of it.  But otherwise, I’ll work as I normally do. 

It was definitely a worthwhile experiment, and another tool for the productivity toolbox, but it wasn’t one that really suits the way my brain is wired.  It’s an emergency ripcord kinda process that sacrifices all other productivity for the day as a result.  But… sometimes that’s needed. 

I ended up not finishing my one big thing for the day – even though I made good progress – so the plan for tomorrow is to try and finish it off.  However, it won’t be the sole task.  I still have to finish up my workshop plan for Friday.  Plus the PC gets picked up tomorrow. 

It’s all go for the next week and I’m quite excited by it all, given that I’ve not left the town for over a year – and even that was local.  If I can get everything done before I leave, it means I can enjoy the time away without outstanding tasks hanging over my conscious. 

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Past Years: 2020 – The Year of Being Fearsome | 2019 – The Year of Soldiering Through | 2018 – The Year of Priorities | 2017 – The Year Of The Offensive