The Good Work of Consolidation (plus an example in DEVONthink)
What do you do when the initial thrills of a new idea fall away?
The Visit and the Waves of Focus
Many people feel that they have to “force” themselves to work. Examples include: Waiting for deadlines to pressure themselves Faking deadlines Hoping for a muse or interest to strike before approaching Shaming yourself with past failures in hopes you’d...
When There’s No Time to Read Books
Every book is an entire world, waiting to be explored.
But, “Who has the time?” and “making time” frankly doesn’t make sense.
What do you do? Read on…
A Fever of Lists
When a list overwhelms, you might think the trouble is the work itself. But that’s not always the case. On my first days as a resident physician, I worked on the inpatient medical floor. It was a terribly overwhelming experience. Something goes wrong somewhere,...
3 Major Components of a Working Task System
We cannot do everything we wish. Such is the human condition. But we can create structures, whether in words, lists, gadgets, and more, to hold things aside while we focus on the moment. Any system we use to manage our work or play should be able to reliably hold the...
The Seduction of Goals, the Strength of Guides
When writing a list of things to do, we look into the future. We write things like: “Do report” “Clean gutters” … The implication is that if we make it through our list, we will have completed the report and cleaned the gutters. Obvious,...
