- Suddenly remembering another unfinished task while working (zygalnick effect)
- Take this as a metaphor: “I received an e-mail from Mr. Tusk asking for an appointment.
- Put “Coordinate an appointment with Mr. Tusk” in the task list.
- After the work is completed, check the schedule and schedule a “one-hour visit with Mr. Tusk”.
- In this one hour, I imagine recalling the task, doing 1 pomodoro work, and handing it over to my future self.
Comparison
- If you suddenly remember and leave it as it is
- It takes up brain resources by reminding me over and over again.
- Feeling guilty or anxious that you are not doing something that you should be doing
- When you suddenly remember something and want to add it to your task list
- Often what is recalled is not a task that can be completed in one line
- Large projects requiring multiple tasks
- Partially started, with unfinished work.
- There is a psychological hurdle to starting the project because the next action is not clear even if the project name is written on the task list.
- It takes a lot of brain resources to figure out what the next action is and write it down
- I can’t interrupt the work I’m doing right now to do that.
- The “process of clarifying what the next action is” itself takes time.
- For tasks that can be completed in one line, it is fine to add the task to the task list and execute it as is.
- For tasks that are not so, the story is to make it a task that can be completed in one line, “adjusting the schedule of an appointment.
- Often what is recalled is not a task that can be completed in one line
experiment
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The “my appointment is at 10:00, it’s 9:40, what should I do for 20 minutes?” problem.
- Case 1
- I put a timer on it for 20 minutes and did some other work.
- Twenty minutes went by and I wasn’t done, so I worked another 20 minutes and ate into the appointment.
- As a result, that task was settled and I was able to focus on the appointment with my engine running at full throttle from the excitement of the work…
- Case 1 Consideration
- If I had extended the appointment for 60 minutes, the appointment would have been stood down.
- Or rather, a 40-minute extension leaves only 20 minutes available for appointments.
- I was going to work one pomodoro in a one hour slot, so I had to stay at least 25 minutes.
- If you’re thinking in terms of the metaphor of an appointment, you’re not supposed to get all up in an appointment just because you have another task to do.
- Rather the opposite: “I’ll be in the conference room a little early.”
- You may start scheduled tasks early. It is normal to review the materials you plan to give to the meeting participants before the meeting.
- If you really want to do “another task” now, you may do it after “going to the meeting room = getting ready to start immediately. However, set a timer and switch to it as soon as the appointment time starts.
- Can it really be interrupted instantly?
- Instead of setting the timer at the start of the appointment, why not set it 5 minutes before, and when the alarm goes off, do the end work and walk around a bit?
- Wife’s advice
- draw up a desk
- make coffee
- Stretching.
- I’m going to the bathroom.
- Throwing away desk trash
- Perform mindless tasks such as shredding.
- Do tasks that can be cut off quickly.
- Case 1
-
I set appointments for an hour and did three in a row and it wore me out.
- Because there is no gap between
- ‘It’s going to start in three minutes!’ Like that.
- At first I thought, “If I can concentrate for 25 minutes in a one-hour slot,” but it seems like delaying the start time is a no-no, so it’s not appropriate to make it an hour in the first place, and a 25-minute appointment would connect seamlessly with pomodoro.
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Related The Curse of Yoichi Ochiai.
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