Paul Graham on Procrastination
Matt Wood
procrastination:
http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html
His categorization of the different types of procrastinators is
spot-on. I sometimes fear that using a GTD system has turned me into
the world's most efficient type-B procrastinator, with the cleanest
house and most well-stocked pantry because my little popup alerts and
running lists never let me forget to sweep out behind the fridge or
pick up that gallon of milk. Meanwhile, I still don't get any more
"important" work done than I did before when I kept one to-do list on a
legal pad. Yet if I weren't doing all those chores around the house,
I'd go insane. Any thoughts on the best way to balance the "important"
stuff like writing great literature with the "necessary" stuff like
straightening up the house? They shouldn't have to be mutually
exclusive.
Michael Langford
not get as far, they will be happy along the way. That everyday stuff
really helps your general wellbeing
How do I turn off the "Mindless daily drivel" of things like laundry?
I make sure at my 20,000 ft GTG analysis I do at the weekly review,
I've set the amount of commitment I want to my household tasks, and
what I want to do towards bigger things.
Even though I need a bar in my closet to increase my hanging space, I
have *intentionally* set it aside so I will have time to do a
rock-on-awesome final report at work.
You can do all the little things your life "needs", or you can set
some aside, and do some other projects. The first thing is called
being a housewife*. That role is needed sometimes in families that
have a lot of household chores (like those with kids), but the last 50
years have shown us that role is not satisfying for a large portion of
the population.
--Michael
*Not to dig on housewives. I'm just saying it is not the most
rewarding role in life for many people.
--
Michael Langford --- 404-386-0495
The demon that you can swallow gives
you its power, and the greater life's pain,
the greater life's reply --Joeseph Campbell
Robert Lynch
> stuff like writing great literature with the "necessary" stuff like
> straightening up the house? They shouldn't have to be mutually
> exclusive.
This is one of those things that GTD doesn't address directly. Once
we have all of our projects and actions worked out, David Allen seems
to believe that we can make the "what's the best thing to do now?"
decision intuitively.
Paul Graham makes an excellent point that many of our important things
(even if they aren't the most important things in our field) need
large blocks of time to make real progress. In a world where we have
many things tugging at us (phones, e-mails, people walking by), we end
up with lots of short periods to do things instead of fewer large
blocks.
In order to ensure that we get the large blocks of time we need to do
"important" things, maybe we need to deviate from GTD and do some
planning. How would any one of us get three continuous hours (for
example) to work on something that requires deep concentration? I
don't think you can do that without putting it on your calendar and
willfully shutting out all the other stuff that chops up our time.
Based on Graham's divisions, I'm too much of a Type-A procrastinator.
I can fill my time, but I don't fill enough of my time with _work_.
But that's a topic for another time. :)
--
Robert Lynch
robert...@gmail.com
Do you procrastinate? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheNowHabit/
maryann
either/or proposition. There's no reason why one can't schedule a few
minor but needed things -- like shaving -- during the day and also
leave room for time spent on more important projects. Paul Graham
brings up very good, very interesting points, but I disagree with the
very first part of it. It's a romantic idea of big work and
inspiration. One of the most important things I learned as a young
artist was from the ceramist Bill Daley, who taught that you can't wait
for inspiration to strike like lightning, and insisted that we work on
drawing, designing, brainstorming -- whatever -- whether we felt
inspired or not. He taught that true inspiration comes from hard work,
and you don't get the hard work done unless you make it part of your
every day life. I've found that's true for any tough, intimidating, or
important work that requires creativity and/or concentration.
That's not to say that I don't personally have a hard time making time
for the bigger things in life, but I'd rather try to follow Bill
Daley's example than the absent-minded professor.
Chris Lott
> He taught that true inspiration comes from hard work,
> and you don't get the hard work done unless you make it part of your
> every day life.
I completely agree. I think Flannery O'Connor said that she had to
write for three hours every day otherwise how could she be ready when
inspiration came?
Or Jack London, who wrote "you can't wait for inspiration you have to
go after it with a club."
I believe in inspiration... I also believe that it comes, in large
part, as a mysterious product of the practice (in both the common and
Zen sense of the term) of engaging in our chosen activity. Inspiration
is naturally borne of doing.
People sometimes complain that others are lucky and have more ideas
and get more done, to which I always think of Samuel Goldwyn who
responded about his own "luck" (and think of his amazing story of ups
and downs) that the harder he worked the luckier he seemed to get...
c
Joe
been filling my days with more menial as opposed to meaningful tasks
from my lists. We just all need to identify our big rocks and make sure
they go in the jar before anything else. If you have too much gravel in
the jar you need to learn to say no as Allen suggests in the book.
stevecooper
small with the trivial. If what you want is to work on the really
important stuff, it's going to be a mix of small tasks and large
projects. You can also probably find stuff in your life that is a
gigantic waste of time, and small things that really are trivial.
For me, a tidy house is a requirement for me for entertaining. A house
that's inviting gets people to come over and throw ideas around, and
that's really important to me. There are projects I've been working on
at work for years that hold absolutely no interest or great meaning.
So, I'd ask yourself, for all your small tasks, whether they support
something larger. If not, learn to lower your standards as much as
possible. Grow a beard. Wash your clothes less often. Eat boring food
that's easy to prepare. Reduce the trivial to the smalllest commitment
of resources. If they do support something, it's important that you do
them right; take the time guilt-free.
John SJ Anderson
> stuff like writing great literature with the "necessary" stuff like
> straightening up the house? They shouldn't have to be mutually
> exclusive.
I thought [Tom Limoncelli's comment's][1] were insightful.
[1]: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8851
Tom has an O'Reilly book out called _Time Management for System
Administrators_; my review is at:
<http://www.genehack.org/2005/12/27/review-of-time-management-for-system-administrators/>,
and there's a sample chapter at the O'Reilly web site. It's well worth
looking at if you're in a highly interrupt-driven profession (like
system administration...)
cheers,
john.
--
genehack.org * weblog == ( bioinfo / linux / opinion / stuff )
Nansense
John SJ Anderson wrote:
> On 12/27/05, Matt Wood <wood...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Any thoughts on the best way to balance the "important"
> > stuff like writing great literature with the "necessary" stuff like
> > straightening up the house? They shouldn't have to be mutually
> > exclusive.
>
I second Steve, but maybe not with the boring food, dirty clothes, and
beard! I take a page from FlyLady here. Daily/weekly/monthly/yearly
chores fall under "hard landscape" and "checklists." I schedule 15-20
mins first thing in the morning and last thing at night to declutter,
pay a couple bills, fold some socks, vacuum one room, etc. Stop when
the timer goes off. (By the way, while you're decluttering, toss some
clothes. If you're doing too much laundry, you own too many clothes,
say FlyLady.) I put a couple of hours aside on Sat a.m. for running
around doing errands, and can pretty much forget about them for the
rest of the week, except for emergency runs. It also means I can act
efficiently, picking up most of my stuff at as few stores as possible,
and planning to visit places close to each other.
GTD (and, I think Covey's books, too) gloss over the idea of what I
call efficiency (not sure if that's the right word), but it's part of
FlyLady, too. If you wipe down the sink and tub with your facecloth
when you're done, it takes about 10 seconds and can eliminate much
procrastination about giving the bathroom a full cleaning. Do it when
you're in the bathroom anyway, and then you don't have to schedule a
separate chore to go in there and clean it. Toss the facecloth in the
hamper...doing small, daily loads of laundry can be "sand" around the
big rocks of life, while if you let it build up, laundry becomes a big
rock!
FlyLady also has an e-mail service of weekly menus and shopping lists
designed to be quick to prepare, cheap to shop for, and healthy. Since
you've got the list and recipes right there, you don't have to spend
brain time thinking about it.
I tend to procrastinate on important stuff and do chores instead
because (a) there's something about the big project making me cringe
that I have to "cringe-bust," or (b) I'm worried about how engrossed
I'll get in the big project that I'll end up with rats underfoot and
creditors at the door. So I use parts of the FlyLady system to reassure
me that I'm doing "enough" of that stuff to get it off my mind.
BTW, these ideas are not absent from GTD...they just tend to be glossed
over, especially in this community. DA does talk about checklists,
around p 178 I think. Once something becomes a routine, like making
your bed as soon as you get out of it, while still half asleep, you
don't need to post it on a list.
As others have stated, important projects should be part of your
trusted system -- your trusted calendar, your "hard landscape." You
might have to schedule 15 minutes at first (FlyLady says "You can do
anything for 15 minutes!") at a time you KNOW you'll be able to do it,
but once you've done that 15 mins at the appointed time, you're
building trust in your calendar and can schedule more.
"The Now Habit" has some good ideas about calendaring, too, that are
not at all at odds with GTD. Schedule some "me time" for meditation,
hobby, etc., since skimping on those things can set off procrastination
in other areas.
(No, I don't always practice what a preach.)
David Douthitt
> (By the way, while you're decluttering, toss some
> clothes. If you're doing too much laundry, you own too many clothes,
> say FlyLady.)
Apparently, FlyLady doesn't have a family of eight like we will soon -
not to mention that many of the families we know are families with up to
ten children.........
> If you wipe down the sink and tub with your facecloth
> when you're done, it takes about 10 seconds and can eliminate much
> procrastination about giving the bathroom a full cleaning.
One of my favorite rules is to make the room look better than when you
entered it - *every* time you leave a room. When you leave the room,
pick something up to go some where, drop something in the hamper, clear
the desk off just a little, and so forth.
In my mind, this fits neatly with GTD: "If it takes less than two
minutes, don't wait, don't write it down: just do it."
It also fits with Alan Lakein's "Swiss Cheese Method" - do a large job
in small pieces.
> FlyLady also has an e-mail service of weekly menus and shopping lists
> designed to be quick to prepare, cheap to shop for, and healthy. Since
> you've got the list and recipes right there, you don't have to spend
> brain time thinking about it.
There's a book about *monthly* cooking which is popular with large
families. Another recommendation is whenever you cook, double the
recipe - serve half and freeze half.
> As others have stated, important projects should be part of your
> trusted system -- your trusted calendar, your "hard landscape."
David Allen says that the only things that should go on your calendar
are "things that are to be done that day or not at all."
StephanF
very important things done. I've tried to arraign the small stuff into
chunks to keep them off to the side of my brain. Maintenance chores I
am just trying to automate into my day.
While my wife and I share chores, I chunk my chores together like
breakfast is not just eating but also emptying the dishwasher, dinner
isn't just eating the wonderful food my wife cooks but kitchen cleanup
as well. Morning startup is not just a to do list but rewriting goals
and reading a chapter of my current read.
I like the idea of wiping down the sink with the washcloth to make a
dent in cleaning the bathroom.
This puts a lot of stuff into "one" place and seems to leave my mind
free for the important things.
I then try to get an hour or twos worth of important work in at the
beginning of the day before looking at email/rss/podcasts/web stuff. I
find that email and the like clog my mind so I have a harder time
getting things done after that because I am seeing so many connections
and possibilities.
One of the places that these organization programs (GTD, Covey, etc)
fall down is that we get bogged down in managing the details of
day-to-day stuff and the really important things fall off the bottom of
the to do lists.
I try to review my Big Goals every day first thing. This focuses me and
puts everything else in perspective.
Robert Lynch
> I then try to get an hour or twos worth of important work in at the
> beginning of the day before looking at email/rss/podcasts/web stuff. I
> find that email and the like clog my mind so I have a harder time
> getting things done after that because I am seeing so many connections
> and possibilities.
I agree with you there -- if I start my work day with a full tour of
my e-mail, web sites, and blogs, I end up in a mental context that
makes it really tough to do _work._
> One of the places that these organization programs (GTD, Covey, etc)
> fall down is that we get bogged down in managing the details of
> day-to-day stuff and the really important things fall off the bottom of
> the to do lists.
GTD works from the assumption that we can and will intuitively choose
to do the most important or meaningful thing whenever we are presented
with a choice. Covey wants us to work out our priorities in advance,
so we can always do what we've decided is most important. Neither
seems to have a solid set of tools to make sure we actually _do_ the
things we think are important.
There are procrastinators lurking in the ranks of organizational
geeks, trying to work out new systems and new priorities instead of
actually doing things. Procrastination is one of my big personal
problems right now... but here I am answering an e-mail. :)
> I try to review my Big Goals every day first thing. This focuses me and
> puts everything else in perspective.
I like this idea -- it lays a foundation for the day that you can then
try to build on as you work. I'll have to make a note of that.
sdsd
> I second Steve, but maybe not with the boring food, dirty clothes, and
> beard! I take a page from FlyLady here. Daily/weekly/monthly/yearly
> chores fall under "hard landscape" and "checklists." I schedule 15-20
> mins first thing in the morning and last thing at night to declutter,
> pay a couple bills, fold some socks, vacuum one room, etc. Stop when
> the timer goes off. (By the way, while you're decluttering, toss some
> clothes. If you're doing too much laundry, you own too many clothes,
> say FlyLady.) I put a couple of hours aside on Sat a.m. for running
> around doing errands, and can pretty much forget about them for the
> rest of the week, except for emergency runs. It also means I can act
> efficiently, picking up most of my stuff at as few stores as possible,
> and planning to visit places close to each other.
>
Nansense: You captured my thoughts EXACTLY. For those of you who are
not familiar, check out www.flylady.net. The flylady has been a
godsend around our house- and no, I don't TOTALLY practice what I
preach, but for the most part the routines/habits I have built into my
life since getting acquainted with the Flylday >3years ago have made a
tremendous difference.
BTW, I do not consider Paul Graham's essay "spot on". The "errands" in
life often support & build the MOST IMPORTANT project you will be known
for when your obituary is read - your relationships/family. Pick up
today's paper and see how many obituaries point to family &
relationships as a person's major accomplishment in life. Sure, these
obituaries are not about people who were on the cutting edge in their
fields, but they did manage to do something VERY important - they built
a loving family & a network of caring, loving relationships- that's
NOTHING to scoff at. Plenty fail at this.
sdsd
on the FlyLady's methodology. Here's a few more:
Assign days of the week to routine tasks:
Monday: Home Blessing day - Spend 1 hour (only 1 hour) cleaning "just
the middles" throughout your house. Quick vacuum, dust, ect. for
maintenance.
You may need to break this up into 3-4 smaller chunks of time, if you
don't have a full hour. But the point here is: one hour is all you
need to spot-clean your house weekly. Maybe less if you have a small
place.
Tuesday: Projects day - spend 15-30 minutes on a personal or
someday/maybe project
(or use Tuesday to finish Monday & start on Wednesday)
Wednesday: Zone cleaning: spend 15-30 minutes a week doing deep
cleaning, rotating "zones" weekly, and you'll never (in theory) have to
do "spring cleaning" again
also on Wed - clean out fridge and make menus/shopping lists
Thursday: grocery shopping/errands
Friday: pay bills/ paperwork /clean out car DATE NIGHT
Saturday - Family Fun Day
Sunday - Renew your Spirit Day (the Lord's Day)
Joe Ganley
of laundry a day in the winter.
Michael Langford
> David Allen says that the only things that should go on your calendar
> are "things that are to be done that day or not at all."
That was (often misquoted) rhetoric.
The only todo's he puts on the calendar are things that have to be
done that day.
He purports to put things of interest or upcoming deadlines as well[1]
--Michael
[1] IN getting things done fast
sdsd
end up with "Mt. Laundry"
StephanF
While getting my work done today is important, I have to know for
myself, am I doing anything to get me closer to those Life Goals of
mine?
I think procrastination is just action without guidance. You need to do
something but you're not sure what, so you end up doing busywork to
fill the time allotted.
Some people have "things to do before I die" lists, others have "What I
want to be when I grow up" ideas, there are many variations.
Covey seems aimed at Senior Execs so they usually have clear goals
already.
GTD seems aimed at middle management who have restricted areas of
influence but a clear place in the hierarchy.
Time Management for SysAdmins (which I saw above) is aimed at totally
interrupt driven jobs.
Simpleology is a system not unlike GTD that seems aimed at
entrepreneurs.
Paul is highly experienced as a startup founder and his article matches
that experience.
Even Automatic Wealth has a info management system.
The issue is how do we mix&match these systems to get something that
works for _us_.
Most of these systems have long term goals that top out at 5-10 year.
Most people will go through a job or five in that time period.
For me a Life Goal will take 20-30 years or more to pull off and isn't
related to my job. That changes thing drastically, and I believe for
the better though it is still too early to tell.
Nansense
does have plenty of tips for people who have to do multiple loads of
laundry each day. I think she starts her first one before breakfast!
Another interesting idea that I've found both in FlyLady and mentioned
on 43Folders.com is "parking downhill." Laying out clothes and packing
lunches the night before, having a "launching pad" by the door for
library books and other stuff you need to take the next time you leave
the house, etc.
sdsd
the past 6 months. I found more similiarities than differences in
their approaches. Flylady is simply geared more toward women and
household responsibilities, although men have used her methods to great
success as well. GTD, naturally, is more geared to the needs of
business people, but I the emphasis on capturing everything on your
minds, including household concerns, makes it a good system to do
hand-in-hand with Flylady. At least for me the two go together well.
Marla Ciley, a.k.a. "The Flylady" has a very practical and encouraging,
even fun-making approach to daily routines and responsibilites. She is
NOT someone who has always been a "born organizer" all her life, in
fact she confesses to serious bouts with depression and years upon
years of her home suffering from C.H.A.O.S. (Can't Have Anyone Over
Syndrome). Her website was born out of her yahoo list, which was born
out of the encouragement from someone who "has been there and has
overcome", which she was regularly giving out for free on discussion
forums and through email to desparate homemakers.
Her site may seem a bit wacky at first glance, but it's really full of
great encouragement and advise. Highly recommended!
pageta
larger tasks. But what I've found is that I am much more effective at
the more important tasks if the smaller tasks are done. If my house is
clean, I can think. Having a clean house is like having a GTD system
running smoothly - it clears out the clutter, both physically and in
your mind, so you are able to think and accomplish more. If my house
isn't clean, I can waste a whole day doing nothing. But if my house is
clean - and it only takes me an hour to do my "Weekly Blessing" (from
the Flylady) and then keep things put away each day (I go through each
room at least once...with a toddler it's hard to keep things in order
all the time but you can "reset" at least once a day) - the increase in
my productivity from having a clean house is equal to the increase in
productivity that I experienced when I implemented GTD.
So I would say that investing 10% of your time on those less important
tasks like showering, getting dressed, and maintaining a clean house
are certainly worth it in terms of how much I am able to accomplish in
the other 90% of my day.
I work from home, and many people tell me I should hire someone to
clean. Again, what I have found is that I like doing it myself simply
because a five-minute break to tidy a room or an hour spent scrubbing
my house is physical labor that gives me a sense of accomplishment when
I don't always get that sense of accomplishment from my work. In some
kind of backwards way, it refreshes me and spurs me on to accomplish
more things. So many times those "important" tasks, even if they are
done GTD style with next actions, etc. don't have a clear beginning and
end, and you don't get that same feeling of having accomplished
something like you do when you clean the kitchen.
So I find keeping house key to maintaining my sanity and productivity.
Matt Wood
order before you can think. I just worry sometimes that I spend too
much of my time fussing over errands and chores. GTD with a dash of
OCD doesn't make the most satisfying meal.
Part of my problem is that I wear many hats, and one of my main
responsibilities, keeping the books for my wife's business, always
feels like busywork no matter how important it is. I think it's best
for me to churn through those tasks as quickly as possible to free up
more time to do satisfying work, like writing or working on a website.
Important or necessary doesn't always equate to enjoyable or
satisfying, so efficiency counts that much more.