Opportunistic Time-Management

post by Richard Henage (richard-henage) · 2024-03-13T21:38:01.209Z · LW · GW · 2 comments

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Be willing to break from your routine if you're in the mood to do the normally-less-savory items now. For example, I normally eat breakfast, work for half an hour, and then go on a run (I look forward to going on a run, not to working, but for me working is more important), and I later work some more. But if I'm done with my half hour of work and I'm in the middle of something engaging and wouldn't mind working some more, it's better to keep working and do the run later, breaking my routine. Similarly, if it's late at night and I could sleep, but I also wouldn't mind getting on my laptop and doing some work, I should do the work now, and push my bedtime and wake-up time back an hour or two. Otherwise, there's a good chance I'll wake up in the morning and dislike the idea of working.

I think this concept is part of a more general rule. There are important tasks and unimportant tasks. There are unsavory tasks and savory tasks. Whenever an important, unsavory task temporarily seems somewhat savory, take the opportunity to do the task instead of whatever you're doing now. Whenever an unimportant, savory task you would normally do temporarily seems somewhat unsavory, take the opportunity to not do the task, and instead do a more important task.

The procrastination vs deadline cycle seems to be a special case of this idea. When the deadline looms, the normally unsavory task becomes somewhat savory (or maybe the task is still unsavory, but your level of motivation rises to compensate: same thing). Many people learn to do their tasks at this time. If the downsides (stress, sloppier work) are minimal, this is actually a viable strategy.

As you pay attention to yourself and learn which tasks are important/unimportant and savory/unsavory, and which ones have a chance to flip their savoriness, you can start to develop a mental lookout list: e.g., watch for times when I need a break from working, and washing the dishes suddenly seems okay.

It's almost like a buy low, sell high mentality on the stock market. You can accumulate value merely by making transactions (doing tasks) at the right time.

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comment by TeaTieAndHat (Augustin Portier) · 2024-03-15T10:37:31.802Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Interesting: my first thought was something like "yes, but it doesn’t solve the problem of when you really don’t ever want to do that thing at all", but it seems that when that happens, it’s either that you shouldn’t even have tried putting that thing on your to-do list in the first place, or, more commonly, that your procrastination has turned into a seething hatred for your tasks and for how bad you are at getting them done. That method sounds like a good way to avoid building up the latter. 
 

Might be a little more difficult if you happen to have a crappy executive function and a find routines helpful to not forget some tasks, though?

comment by vjprema (vijay-prema) · 2024-03-13T23:32:55.181Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

This also reminds me that there can be a certain background "guilt" about not doing tasks that you think are important but are to unsavory to find the motivation to do them now.

This faint guilt in itself can accumulate into increased dissatisfaction, in turn leading me to further avoid unsavory tasks in favor of the quick hit of highly savory activities.  A vicious cycle.

If I think about tasks in a more relaxed way and be flexible and realistic about tackling savory and unsavory tasks when they suit, it can take away this guilt and break the cycle.