I begin each day by selecting some action-oriented goals which I hope will advance some broader achievement-oriented goal. For example, if I'm working towards an in-classroom prototype around a set of ideas, I might aim to spend three focused hours fleshing those ideas out in sketches.
This is a natural spot for brief deliberation, but once the day begins, I focus on the actions I've chosen and suppress planning. The rest of the day's work becomes roughly deontological. I give myself permission to be satisfied with the day if I spent three focused hours sketching like I'd planned.
— https://blog.andymatuschak.org/post/159979927467/satisfaction-and-progress-in-open-ended-work ↗
it's easier to be satisfied with day of implementation work vs a day of open-ended research work, especially since feedback loops in research are long
on the scale of months and years this changes though - being able to compress achievements into a todo-list leads to a question if actually that much was done
Andy organises his days in action-oriented goals (like "spend 3 hours on researching X"), which move him closer to his achievement-oriented goals (like "finish writing first chapter of Y")
how can I use this?
224 words last tended to on 2020-12-13 — let me know what you think