Auto saved by Logseq

acc60422/9db45ab6.md

@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+---
+date: 2020-11-09T16:48
+tags:
+  - timeline
+  - practices
+  - productivity
+---
+
+# focus requires a rigorous contract
+
+Balancing many disparate tasks is good for my morale ("Wow! If I get bored with
+this one thing, I can just do something else!"), but feeling "behind" is most
+decidedly _not_ good for my morale.  Timeblocking and scheduling are great, but
+they require _discipline_. I like to think that I am effectively entering into
+a short-term contract with myself. If the terms aren't clear, the chances of
+failure go up (significantly). Interestingly, I think this scenario represents
+a conflict of interest: I am basically the party responsible for _monitoring_
+that contract, as well as the one actually executing the work.
+
+Besides having a clear plan (a statement of work) I think the next biggest
+concern involves distractions. In my experience, you can't get rid of
+distractions, but you can be judicious about _what_ distractions you choose to
+entertain. That gets to the same end-goal of choosing _when_ to focus on
+distractions, but puts a different emphasis on the problem.
+
+The "hard" part (to me) is that developing the intuition of what to do (and
+when) is much easier said than done. Maybe because it is a constantly moving
+target?

acc60422/dc879f80.md

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+---
+date: 2021-01-29T12:00
+tags:
+  - timeline
+  - practices
+  - productivity
+---
+
+# how i stay (somewhat) organized
+
+Right now this is just a draft outline, ideally I will circle back on this some
+time this year to fill in some more details.
+
+- Tools
+  - Notebook
+    - Right now this is actually just half-letter-page (5.5 inches × 8.5
+      inches) sheets on a similarly sized clipboard + pen.
+    - Pre-printed [time
+      block](https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2013/12/21/deep-habits-the-importance-of-planning-every-minute-of-your-work-day/)
+      pages: four columns (for amending schedule) +
+      twenty-two 30min rows.
+    - Blank pages for logging daily notes, observations, and ideas.
+      - I use some elements of [bullet journaling](https://bulletjournal.com/)
+        for this:
+        - I love the bullet syntax, so I use that often (and a homegrown
+          shorthand).
+        - I migrate tasks from page to page, but don’t follow any of the
+          weekly/monthly/yearly migrations.
+        - The second or third time a task is migrated, I move this task over to
+          my digital planner app (more below).
+        - Reflection happens ideally once a day, but more like 2 or 3 times a
+          week.
+    - Periodically I clear out the clipboard to archive older sheets that I
+      won’t need to update - these get scanned and put into a per-annum PDF
+      document that is [synced](https://syncthing.net/) to my phone and
+      computer.
+  - Calendar
+    - I check my digital calendar multiple times a day: I use this to
+      communicate shared calendar events with team members, as well as personal
+      events, deadlines, etc.
+  - Home-grown [todoist](https://todoist.com/) clone
+    - Repo: git://pingo.thermokar.st/planner
+    - Live: https://planner.thermokar.st (access restricted)
+    - Structure
+      - This planner is modeled after GTD practices and features an inbox, and
+        the ability to categorize tasks into one or more “plans” (plans can be
+        a project, a specific day/week/events todo list, an issue tracker,
+        etc).
+- Routines
+  - Daily
+    - I triage notifications first thing in the morning (no more than 30 mins).
+      - Note, I might move away from this: I would prefer to handle that kind
+        of stuff midday if possible.
+    - Timeblock the day’s schedule (see: [[9db45ab6]]),
+      incorporating prior engagements, any urgent ad hoc tasks, and the week’s
+      goals (more below).
+      - If I fall behind or something unexpected comes up, I update the
+        timeblock schedule when I get a chance.
+  - Weekly
+    - Before each week starts I try to identify a few high-level goals for the
+      week, and figure out (broadly) how they might fit into my schedule, but I
+      don’t worry too much about specific scheduling at this point, just
+      something like "Wednesday would be a good day to carve out time for
+      this…"
+  - Long-term
+    - My calendar handles big things like major work milestones, deadlines,
+      appointments, meetings, etc.
+    - Tasks go into my planner app, I review these 3-5 times a month on average
+      to see how they might fit into what is coming up next, etc. Really
+      long-term tasks get filed into an @someday plan.