How are you feeling about your research and life more generally? Important to consider this because it’s easy for us to find all sorts of clever ways to procrastinate ;)
An idea: track your time. My system is just to make a note on a piece of paper whenever I change to do/think about something different.
I found this both confronting + comforting:
(1) we have more time than we think
(2) time perception is shaped by novelty of our experiences
(3) inefficiency can go on for a long time when we are on autopilot
(4) often time is not going where we think it is going*
(5) often it’s possible to batch stuff and spend time in refreshing ways
(6) it makes us mindful of time
(7) it creates micro-friction for distractions.
*For example I thought I was spending > 30 min a day on particular tasks around the house. Turned out I was spending about 5-10 min on those tasks.
How are you feeling about your research and life more generally? Important to consider this because it’s easy for us to find all sorts of clever ways to procrastinate ;)
An idea: track your time. My system is just to make a note on a piece of paper whenever I change to do/think about something different.
I found this both confronting + comforting:
(1) we have more time than we think
(2) time perception is shaped by novelty of our experiences
(3) inefficiency can go on for a long time when we are on autopilot
(4) often time is not going where we think it is going*
(5) often it’s possible to batch stuff and spend time in refreshing ways
(6) it makes us mindful of time
(7) it creates micro-friction for distractions.
*For example I thought I was spending > 30 min a day on particular tasks around the house. Turned out I was spending about 5-10 min on those tasks.