Task Breaking
Sometimes, I feel bad about myself. Because I am too busy doing tons of stuff per day. Some of them are in the category of responsibility, some of them are a hobby and some of them are consuming.
One of the greatest pieces of advice I get if I want to feel the real productivity is removing stuff from your life. Either things or tasks. Lets you focus on the best and most important one.
I do a lot of stuff per day. But, I am like doing it without knowing it has a general category that I can categorize. So that, every small task will sit under that big task category. I realize this when I feel burn out ๐ and kinda lost. Thanks @Nutlope for tweeting about this.
Basically, the idea is we break all of our daily tasks into its big category. The big category is something that we can wrap all the small related stuff into it. For example, Doing, Consuming and Relaxing. Cool, let see my breaking task.
- Doing = writing โ๏ธ, coding ๐งโ๐ป, working ๐
- Consuming = reading ๐, watching ๐ฝ
- Relaxing. = sport ๐ช, friends ๐ฏโโ๏ธ, family ๐จโ๐ฉโ๐งโ๐ฆ, Piano ๐น, Guitar ๐ธ
I start my day with tasks in #1 and progress to #3.
See, you have a big category that makes you not worried about the small task. Just focus on doing, consuming, and relaxing. The task inside it is a mutable variable that you can change anytime. Now, I have clarity on what to focus on at that time.
I love writing tho. Especially if I want to understand specific things, I force myself to write. Usually, I write at night, but after I do this task-breaking, I reevaluate myself on what time my writing is the best. And the answer is in the morning. It doesn't care either it is freewriting, blogging like this, or technical writing..
Coding is my usual pastime stuff. So, I will put a priority on this task. I like doing it in the morning, set 2 to 4 hours of deep work is much better than 5 times of 30 minutes at different times per day. Sometimes, if they're a rabbit hole that I can't do in 4 hours, I continue it in the evening or night, it depends.
For reading, I read a lot tho. I keep my lovely blogging site on my RSS reader. There is a mixed type of blog I follow in my RSS - programming, arts, webcomic( I am a fan of this), Tech News, writing, and yada yada. I also read books. In conclusion, books for depth, articles for breadth ;p.
I am not a fan of social media that is more on instant watch, like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. My watching Social Media is just Youtube, that's it. Normally, I consume for piano or guitar lessons. I like to copy songs tho because it gives me a short satisfaction of real-world skills.
I like jogging and workouts. Not a sport in general, but it gives me more energy and a healthy body. Jogging three times per week in the morning, and workout in the evening. More on cardio and upper muscle ๐ช. This is important for me because sometimes it gives me pleasure after hours of working or coding.
The night is people time, with friends and family. We usually eat together for dinner, express our day to the whole family. Discord is a friendly place.
I spend 1 to 2 hours jamming piano and guitar before bed. Try new songs, keep the learning progress, try random chords, try funky songs, and yada yada.
Cool tho. That is my day. Beautiful isn't it.
The reality is, you need the discipline to implement this kind of thing. Give it 2 to 4 weeks a try. Rebalance what makes you uncomfortable. It takes me 2 weeks tho to feel the flow.