[sanderjd]

Honestly, I really don't relate to this.

I don't have tasks I can do in 25 or 30 minutes, except for the exact kind of "marking messages read" tasks that leave me feeling empty at the end of the day.

> Even if you didn't finish it, note down progress and next steps. Go at it again in the next slot.

For me, these notes would mostly be "spent 25 minutes rebuilding context, got pulled away" over and over again.

I think there are some good techniques in this article. Taking notes is good.

But I don't think embracing the chaos is the way to go, I think being a lot more proactive and firm about giving yourself the time you need to focus and do high quality work is the better approach.

If every day is becoming a mess, start by figuring out how to fix that.

[LoganDark]

This is part of my issue, too. Not having no things to do in a short amount of time, but knowing that I don't have time, preventing me from starting. A lot of people have the ability to just dive in regardless of how much time they foresee having. I don't. I need to have time in order to feel safe starting anything.

In the hours preceding something like a doctor's appointment, I can't do anything. Anything I start will be interrupted by the appointment, so I can't even try.

[adadadadadad]

Having endless uninterrupted time surprisingly doesn’t help either. “I cant start because the weekend is in 4 days”.

Some of my most productive times have actually been sporadic bursts before appointments mainly for annoying tasks. The fact that you don’t have enough time seems to break the perfectionism blocker “I don’t have enough time so I’ll do a rush job of whatever I can knowing it will not be completed” and also avoids the self-disappointment pressure that would come from “I have plenty of time now but I still can’t work so I will never get it done”. It’s a time for building momentum. And it’s not like you are running away from the task purposely to procrastinate…it’s that you have no choice.

It’s like how some people are calm and productive when everything is in chaos, because the chaos makes it obvious exactly what needs to be done and no one is judging how it’s done they just need it resolved and you will be a hero.

[dboreham]

This is just how the brain works. People who claim they can do a hard focused task in 20 min chunks are faking it. The article is trying to say I think "don't worry about that, because on average you will have some uninterrupted stretches in which to do the hard task, but right now get some simple shit done because that needs done too".

[dboreham]

I didn't read it as embrace the chaos, rather to not fixate on the perfect non-chaotic day that's coming (it isn't). Instead adopt a "continuous improvement" stance where any little deviation from total chaos is a win. Iterate that process. Basically the same thing as continuous delivery: start delivering a crappy thing and progressively fix issues / add features until it's done.

[adadadadadad]

Sometimes I said to myself: just spend 2 mins on this side project and get as much done as you can. Surely I can do as little as 2 mins regardless of where it gets me.

Yet I simply can’t. It’s a total mind fu*k.

Yet we all do this all the time. Maybe someone has always wanted to learn some language, and then they’ve never spent even a few minutes starting.