I don't know about most people, but this works terribly for me. Motivation is huge for my happiness, so I want to do something when I'm in the mood for it.
This means I do keep a list of the things I need to get done, so whenever I've got free time, I take a look at the list and see what I'm most in the mood to do.
Of course, this is the real world -- sometimes something has a firm deadline so you have no choice (so of course you do things you aren't in the mood for).
But I want to run errands when I'm in the mood to go outside. I want to go to them gym when I'm feeling energetic. I want to wash dishes or clean my apartment when my brain is conked out anyways. I want to work on a hobby when I'm feeling creative. I want to read a book when I'm feeling relaxed.
Or at work, I might be in the mood for writing e-mails, or working on a presentation, or chatting about a project, or catching up on reading. They'll all get done eventually, but why not do the one you'll most enjoy at the moment, as long as you can?
And I know myself well enough to know I never have any idea what I'm going to feel when. Will I be feeling energetic or creative or conked out tonight after work? Tomorrow when I wake up? The day after on my lunch break? Who knows!
Scheduling time to do my things is a disaster for my happiness. I'm sure it can work for other people, but it's not for everyone.
>I don't know about most people, but this works terribly for me. Motivation is huge for my happiness, so I want to do something when I'm in the mood for it.
That's a sure-fire recipe for never doing most things one needs to do, because most of those things are not things that one looks forward to anyway.
Even for the core work someone does (e.g. writing for a writer), people mention time and again that setting up times in advance and committing to them works better than getting in the mood.
This mentality can be a little dangerous. You're training yourself to cater to your moods. This can result in important but not urgent tasks that you're never really in the mood to do never getting done. Or, if it's a task that has to be done, a lot of resistance because you're used to waiting for motivation to kick in.
For me, a better approach has been to consciously force myself to do things I don't feel like doing. I push through low energy, distractions, or boredom and just get it done.
You might expect this to lead to sub-optimal performance or suffering through unenjoyable tasks. Sometimes it does, but in my experience, a more common result is the good feeling of having pushed through a barrier and found a second, or third wind.
The main point of the article is not that scheduling is superior to TODO lists. Instead it is that continually adding to a TODO list is bad and instead making a schedule makes that impossible.
I feel using a TODO list with time estimates would give the benefits from the article was also letting you schedule flexibly as you feel like it. By putting the time estimates in it makes it easier to say no to tasks that don't have to be done.
It's a term I came up with as I observed myself making todo lists, completing them, feeling good about it, but realizing that I'm not getting from A to B on important projects. It's (comparatively) easy to make todo items like 'buy milk', 'get haircut', 'go on date with X', 'read 1 chapter of <book>', but these are what I call trivial accomplishments. Having a todo list 100% made up of these is a good way to fool yourself, because you will feel good about yourself (for a while), because that's just how we work, the illusion of progress fools the brain.
Way out: Separate todo lists into trivial and non-trivial, eg. I have a separate Trello list for each. Make sure your non-trivial list is not empty and you make progress on it. Hard items are writing/output versus reading/input. Another good way to identify them is if they're about Deliberate Practice.
Totally agree that scheduling is not for everyone. I've also read a lot of so called productivity expert saying that you should write down all the things in mind without bothering scheduling them. IMHO, there's no single solution for personal productivity boost but to work hard and figure out the best solution for yourself.
"When you schedule things, you are forced to deal with the fact that there are only so many hours in a week. You’re forced to make choices rather than add something to a never ending to-do list that only becomes a source of anxiety."
Great observation. I get the feeling scheduling is something that MBAs are taught, where "time is the restriction". What about JIT scheduling? In my view, adding dates to every task is another BS and unnecessary task. Here's an alternative restriction, tasks per day. "Ivy Ledbetter Lee" (business productivity guru 100 years ago) had another approach. Spend 15min at end of day doing the following:
* specify six tasks you need to finish
* prioritise them one to six
* do each task, in order, till finished
* work your arse off
* left-over tasks are added to tomorrows list
* repeat
The restriction here is how many tasks I NEED to do TODAY. Read more about "Ivy Ledbetter Lee" below.
Are you overworked or super stressed? You should not forget things this easily - I was the same in the first half of the year, and it was due to almost unbearable stress.
The greatest insight I had when it comes to time management came from a surprising source. I had played around a bit with Pomodoro for my typical intellectual tasks (research, programming etc.) with no real success.
Then on a summer weekend my sister asked me to help her renovate her apartment, specifically I was tasked with the removal of all the wallpapers. I said sure, give me the key and I'll get going over the weekend and actually dropped by Friday after work...by chance I had my Pomodoro timer in my work backpack. I looked around and came to the conclusion that I had absolutely no idea how long it would take me to tear everything down. So I guessed how much I could do in 25 minutes, set the timer (25 minutes) and went to work. I got less done than expected and I suppose you could say I started a Bayesian process of sorts updating my priors but most importantly I realized that knowing how much time something roughly takes is extremely valuable in scheduling work.
I went on to calculate roughly how many tomatoes it would take to get each room done and since there wasn't much time left on the Friday figured I could get one of the tiny ones done. It worked, the estimation was fairly accurate and I actually caught myself trying to beat my estimates. On Saturday I had a great plan and a firm goal (get the living room and one extra room done). I eventually settled in on 2 tomatoes followed by a 15 minute break. Worked great.
tl;dr: Ever since that I get more done whenever I know how long it'll roughly take. That means exploring is very valuable. For new tasks I estimate in tomatoes, draw a circle for each and get going. When it takes longer I add squares and once the task is done I update my mental image of how long it'll take in the future.
Whenever I don't know how long something might take I tend to procrastinate a lot until I force myself to timebox it. I think most interesting tasks tend to fall in this category.
I think the big mistake of people talking about productivity is the idea that a single formula works for everyone. For example, I finally discovered that I am most productive when I have no todo lists. I just work better by simply picking whatever has highest priority in my mind and doing it. The point is, if something is important it should be on your mind. If it is not, it probably is not important or urgent. Of course, if something needs to be remembered you make notes, but nothing similar to a todo list. Whenever I have a todo list I instinctively start to slack off.
How about this - different people respond well to different organizational methods? Perhaps like many things there is not a one size fits all solution.
For me, todo lists in the form of a Kanban board with columns that hold longer term "need to remember" tasks really help so I don't forget those things. And when I am sitting idle wondering what to do next, I have a list ready (unless something else pops up that is higher priority).
I think over scheduling might lead to its own inflexibility and paralysis as well. But it might work great for some people!
I've been trying having 2 lists. One I call the bucket, where I have things I need to do but don't know when yet. And the other is for things I need to do today. So when today is depleted I pull stuff from the bucket. The only challenge here is putting realistic tasks for the 'today' list. I've noticed that I can only put like 2 or 3 max to actually make this work. The best part of making a very short list is that you can actually finish it, and it kinda motivates you to do a little extra if you have time.
I find that this fails if your job involves putting out fires and responding to unpredictable client needs. I used to make a very concrete schedule at the start of a week and by midweek most of it was out the window. I do usually keep small must-do-this-week list, and the key for me in planning is estimating the duration of each task so that I can take advantage of what time I do get, and choose the right task for the time I have.
When I was a manufacturing engineer, I used to have a short list of long term projects, a fair list of medium term projects, and a long list of tasks. A rolling todo list was the only way to stay on top of things.
You can't be the Pinball Wizard when the job requires you to be the pinball.
"I’ve helped thousands of people — from NFL Coaches and Four Star Generals to best-selling authors and hedge fund managers — feel less busy and get more done.
I get asked for advice on improving productivity so much so that I’ve packaged most of it into an online seminar that I call Insanely More Productive."
Why is an advertisement for a $59 online seminar on the front page of HN? Nice title aside, I'm flagging this.
If you look past the ad, the author's main point is a great piece of advice. A task takes time, so if you're going to do it you should schedule it. It's easy to put something on a todo list because you're not committing to doing it; you're just putting it on a list which causes anxiety.
Personally though I always need a back burner / ice box (think agile) but in part its handling for the fact that I have bad memory and then can relax a little more that I won't forget it.
My personal experience is 100% in line with this, and it's beyond me why none of the major todo list apps feature drag & drop calendar integration.
I'm reluctantly using Things, and the closest thing it has is due dates and "hide this task until that date".
Surely, it wouldn't be that hard to implement a daily planner view that brings up your day's calendar in the right pane, a list of upcoming tasks in the left one, and lets you drag them across ?
Parts of Timeful have been added to the Google Calendar app but it's lacking, and nowhere near as close to a complete, magical and satisfying system as Timeful was.
More than a year later, I'm still desperately looking for good alternatives. "Plan" (https://getplan.co/) looks promising but not quite polished enough, and "Skedpal" seems overkill.
IQTELL.com has 'virtual calendars'. Anything with a due date appears on the calendar automatically. Unfortunately you can't sync these calendars with any other app. Alternatively you can also add an action to an actual calendar manually.
Yes, I have been looking for a split pane drag and drop solution too. No dice. Regardless, IQTELL is so powerful though that no matter when I find an elegant solution, it falls short in other areas anyway.
Fantastical 2 is the only good solution I've been able to find for both calendaring and reminders. It lacks many of the features of OmniFocus but I find the trade-off to be worthwhile.
As an aside, an important facet of self organization is time tracking. Does HN have a good way of time tracking? I dislike the stop/start method? Something like stochastic time tracking (https://github.com/dreeves/TagTime) perhaps (but that actually works).
I use a simple version of a TO-DO list. I have a email folder ACTION, and mails with a subject prefix of TODO are moved there with an auto-rule. My wife also adds reminders to the TODO list as required.
This works well for me; I have weekly timesheet and billing to do, and it keeps track of where I am in the workflow. An automated job on my server mails me the weekly tasks required in the subject, and I delete each mail as the task is complete. For example my weekly automated tasks are
TODO: create invoice
TODO: add invoice to finance spreadsheet
TODO: complete timesheet
TODO: save approved timesheet
TODO: mail invoice and timesheet to customer
TODO: confirm scheduled payment received
TODO: perform weekly backup
TODO: CAR1 check oil
TODO: CAR1 tyre pressures
TODO: CAR1 water jet reservoir
TODO: CAR2 check oil
TODO: CAR2 tyre pressures
TODO: CAR2 water jet reservoir
This allows certain tasks to be performed when the weather is appropriate.
The problem with using calendars is actually you're pretty flexible about when you want to get most stuff done, you just have a deadline. But you don't want to do it at the last minute, so for a weekend task you want to check in a few times to see if you are not too busy to do it.
http://www.dueapp lets you put a time to be reminded and that has really clear snooze functionality. So I procrastinate a lot (snooze) but I'm always aware of it in case I have a deadline, and I don't have to worry about remember it.
(I'm unaffiliated with Due I just love the product)
While scheduling is great sometimes you've really got to pareto your way to whats important. It is important to keep near and far perspective at all times, not to have your time be eaten by menial tasks... that something I am guilty of. If I am slipping I would take a break and try to reframe what is important as something interesting, ask yourself - how this can be exciting, interesting to you?
[+] [-] crazygringo|9 years ago|reply
This means I do keep a list of the things I need to get done, so whenever I've got free time, I take a look at the list and see what I'm most in the mood to do.
Of course, this is the real world -- sometimes something has a firm deadline so you have no choice (so of course you do things you aren't in the mood for).
But I want to run errands when I'm in the mood to go outside. I want to go to them gym when I'm feeling energetic. I want to wash dishes or clean my apartment when my brain is conked out anyways. I want to work on a hobby when I'm feeling creative. I want to read a book when I'm feeling relaxed.
Or at work, I might be in the mood for writing e-mails, or working on a presentation, or chatting about a project, or catching up on reading. They'll all get done eventually, but why not do the one you'll most enjoy at the moment, as long as you can?
And I know myself well enough to know I never have any idea what I'm going to feel when. Will I be feeling energetic or creative or conked out tonight after work? Tomorrow when I wake up? The day after on my lunch break? Who knows!
Scheduling time to do my things is a disaster for my happiness. I'm sure it can work for other people, but it's not for everyone.
[+] [-] coldtea|9 years ago|reply
That's a sure-fire recipe for never doing most things one needs to do, because most of those things are not things that one looks forward to anyway.
Even for the core work someone does (e.g. writing for a writer), people mention time and again that setting up times in advance and committing to them works better than getting in the mood.
[+] [-] zzzmarcus|9 years ago|reply
For me, a better approach has been to consciously force myself to do things I don't feel like doing. I push through low energy, distractions, or boredom and just get it done.
You might expect this to lead to sub-optimal performance or suffering through unenjoyable tasks. Sometimes it does, but in my experience, a more common result is the good feeling of having pushed through a barrier and found a second, or third wind.
[+] [-] ScottBurson|9 years ago|reply
"When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep!"
[+] [-] thethirdone|9 years ago|reply
I feel using a TODO list with time estimates would give the benefits from the article was also letting you schedule flexibly as you feel like it. By putting the time estimates in it makes it easier to say no to tasks that don't have to be done.
[+] [-] Maro|9 years ago|reply
It's a term I came up with as I observed myself making todo lists, completing them, feeling good about it, but realizing that I'm not getting from A to B on important projects. It's (comparatively) easy to make todo items like 'buy milk', 'get haircut', 'go on date with X', 'read 1 chapter of <book>', but these are what I call trivial accomplishments. Having a todo list 100% made up of these is a good way to fool yourself, because you will feel good about yourself (for a while), because that's just how we work, the illusion of progress fools the brain.
Way out: Separate todo lists into trivial and non-trivial, eg. I have a separate Trello list for each. Make sure your non-trivial list is not empty and you make progress on it. Hard items are writing/output versus reading/input. Another good way to identify them is if they're about Deliberate Practice.
[+] [-] asurachadtrot|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bootload|9 years ago|reply
Great observation. I get the feeling scheduling is something that MBAs are taught, where "time is the restriction". What about JIT scheduling? In my view, adding dates to every task is another BS and unnecessary task. Here's an alternative restriction, tasks per day. "Ivy Ledbetter Lee" (business productivity guru 100 years ago) had another approach. Spend 15min at end of day doing the following:
* specify six tasks you need to finish
* prioritise them one to six
* do each task, in order, till finished
* work your arse off
* left-over tasks are added to tomorrows list
* repeat
The restriction here is how many tasks I NEED to do TODAY. Read more about "Ivy Ledbetter Lee" below.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12999116
[+] [-] jetru|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tarr11|9 years ago|reply
Having a todo list at hand to write these things down means I don't lose them, even if I don't look at them again for weeks or months.
Not sure where you'd put this on a Calendar.
[+] [-] manmal|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kriro|9 years ago|reply
Then on a summer weekend my sister asked me to help her renovate her apartment, specifically I was tasked with the removal of all the wallpapers. I said sure, give me the key and I'll get going over the weekend and actually dropped by Friday after work...by chance I had my Pomodoro timer in my work backpack. I looked around and came to the conclusion that I had absolutely no idea how long it would take me to tear everything down. So I guessed how much I could do in 25 minutes, set the timer (25 minutes) and went to work. I got less done than expected and I suppose you could say I started a Bayesian process of sorts updating my priors but most importantly I realized that knowing how much time something roughly takes is extremely valuable in scheduling work.
I went on to calculate roughly how many tomatoes it would take to get each room done and since there wasn't much time left on the Friday figured I could get one of the tiny ones done. It worked, the estimation was fairly accurate and I actually caught myself trying to beat my estimates. On Saturday I had a great plan and a firm goal (get the living room and one extra room done). I eventually settled in on 2 tomatoes followed by a 15 minute break. Worked great.
tl;dr: Ever since that I get more done whenever I know how long it'll roughly take. That means exploring is very valuable. For new tasks I estimate in tomatoes, draw a circle for each and get going. When it takes longer I add squares and once the task is done I update my mental image of how long it'll take in the future.
Whenever I don't know how long something might take I tend to procrastinate a lot until I force myself to timebox it. I think most interesting tasks tend to fall in this category.
[+] [-] coliveira|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sixdimensional|9 years ago|reply
For me, todo lists in the form of a Kanban board with columns that hold longer term "need to remember" tasks really help so I don't forget those things. And when I am sitting idle wondering what to do next, I have a list ready (unless something else pops up that is higher priority).
I think over scheduling might lead to its own inflexibility and paralysis as well. But it might work great for some people!
[+] [-] pella|9 years ago|reply
https://steveblank.com/2010/10/07/strategy-is-not-a-to-do-li...
[+] [-] bootload|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] pacomerh|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yodon|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] starquake|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chvid|9 years ago|reply
There. I saved you a bit of time so now you too can go be more "most successful".
[+] [-] oddlyaromatic|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nhebb|9 years ago|reply
You can't be the Pinball Wizard when the job requires you to be the pinball.
[+] [-] vaibhavsagar|9 years ago|reply
http://rz.github.io/articles/2016/oct/time-on-your-side.html
[+] [-] xiaoma|9 years ago|reply
I get asked for advice on improving productivity so much so that I’ve packaged most of it into an online seminar that I call Insanely More Productive."
Why is an advertisement for a $59 online seminar on the front page of HN? Nice title aside, I'm flagging this.
[+] [-] kareemm|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lathiat|9 years ago|reply
Personally though I always need a back burner / ice box (think agile) but in part its handling for the fact that I have bad memory and then can relax a little more that I won't forget it.
[+] [-] renaudg|9 years ago|reply
I'm reluctantly using Things, and the closest thing it has is due dates and "hide this task until that date". Surely, it wouldn't be that hard to implement a daily planner view that brings up your day's calendar in the right pane, a list of upcoming tasks in the left one, and lets you drag them across ?
I feel orphaned ever since Google acqui-hired then shut down the only app that really nailed this workflow : Timeful. Its AI-based autoscheduling was only a bonus, the UI was marvelous. See https://gmail.googleblog.com/2015/05/time-is-on-your-sidewel... or for some background info: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2014/08...
Parts of Timeful have been added to the Google Calendar app but it's lacking, and nowhere near as close to a complete, magical and satisfying system as Timeful was.
More than a year later, I'm still desperately looking for good alternatives. "Plan" (https://getplan.co/) looks promising but not quite polished enough, and "Skedpal" seems overkill.
Anyone else in this situation ?
[+] [-] ethiclub|9 years ago|reply
Yes, I have been looking for a split pane drag and drop solution too. No dice. Regardless, IQTELL is so powerful though that no matter when I find an elegant solution, it falls short in other areas anyway.
[+] [-] setharb|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] moon_priestess|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cocolos|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tra3|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eukaryote|9 years ago|reply
This works well for me; I have weekly timesheet and billing to do, and it keeps track of where I am in the workflow. An automated job on my server mails me the weekly tasks required in the subject, and I delete each mail as the task is complete. For example my weekly automated tasks are
This allows certain tasks to be performed when the weather is appropriate.[+] [-] dosethree|9 years ago|reply
http://www.dueapp lets you put a time to be reminded and that has really clear snooze functionality. So I procrastinate a lot (snooze) but I'm always aware of it in case I have a deadline, and I don't have to worry about remember it.
(I'm unaffiliated with Due I just love the product)
[+] [-] hexsprite|9 years ago|reply
Only problem is that it's tedious and time consuming to actually schedule each item.
I created Focuster (http://focuster.com) to solve this problem by automatically scheduling your to dos for you.
An extra bonus is that it reschedules based on cancellations and new appointments.
Would love any feedback you guys might have!
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] perlpimp|9 years ago|reply
my 2c.