Slow, Steady, Progress
Page created: 2023-08-05Back to productivity.
As a parent with a day job, I do not have unlimited time during the day to work on projects. I have even less time on computer screens, so computer projects are very limited indeed.
As someone who was used to having more-or-less unlimited time for projects and loved chasing any and every shiny new interest that crossed my path, it was difficult for me to make the adjustment. But I’m there now, fully adjusted.
And it turns out, the limitations have lead me to this simple set of rules:
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Pick a thing to work on.
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Work on that thing in its time-track (project-time).
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Don’t work on other things.
If you can make yourself do it, this method is guaranteed to work.
Here’s how I do it:
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I have a notebook on my desk with current and future projects mapped out (subject to change!)
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When I hop on my personal computer, I know what I’m going to work on.
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If I get the idea to work on something else, I write it down, but keep working on the current thing.
What’s interesting about this set of restrictions is that it starts to make you think much more seriously and intentionally about what to work on.
I was inspired to write this because I just read Equanimity is the real productivity hack (substack.com) by Karla Starr.
She writes:
Equanimity is emotional sobriety, the ability to keep going despite all of that other crap that life throws at you. Being comfortable making whatever progress you can today, wherever you are right now, is the real productivity hack.
This is exactly it.
I’m not going to claim I’ve achieved anything close to a consistent state of equanimity, but I’m making progress. And like the work itself, making slow and steady progress on ourselves is the One True Life Hack.