Productivity
😐
On the Org guide, I did indeed have another surprise, and I only got through a couple more chapters. Maybe I can push through the rest of it this week.
The surprise was getting an emergency freelance job, so that took up my evenings last week. I handled it a lot better than I would have in the past. I didn’t get myself in a state of overwhelm, and I didn’t let my work sessions go on without end. I set limits, used my work management tools, and carried on with my regular routine.
😎
I’m training myself to consistently write as I work. I call it work journaling, and it’s a dialogue with myself about whatever I’m doing as I’m doing it. I explain situations I run into, ask myself questions, make suggestions to myself, report on my findings, give myself next steps, and continue on in that vein.
It has the same effect for me as time blocking: It lets me focus on the task in front of me, which dramatically reduces my stress while keeping my work flowing. It lets me capture my thoughts concretely instead of burdening my working memory with them. It makes keeping track of my moment-to-moment tasks much easier. It slows down my thoughts and draws my attention to them so I can question myself and make better use of my own knowledge and second thoughts. And it documents my work so I can refer to it later.
Fiction
🤔
The Book of Three didn’t quite live up to my nostalgia, but there’s substance there. It’s like Alexander had a story all crafted for adults and then decided to shrink it, cover it in felt, and tell it as a puppet show for children. But the serious concepts still show through to be pondered. I’m curious to see (again) how the series develops. Also the best part of the book was Eilonwy.
