[HN Gopher] Using a list to manage executive function
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Using a list to manage executive function
Author : swah
Score : 102 points
Date : 2024-08-13 10:21 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (drmaciver.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (drmaciver.substack.com)
| jasperry wrote:
| One reason this method seems good is that it requires you to
| write down a new list each day. For me at least, it's easier to
| write a fresh list and get started on that than to get motivated
| by a list I wrote before. Writing a new list makes me remember
| what I /want/ to get done, and why.
| jmbwell wrote:
| One of my early frustrations with Microsoft's "To-do" app was
| that it discarded my "today" tasks every day. But now I love that
| it does this, for the reasons the author describes.
|
| I was used to apps like Asana that would just let things sit
| there and accumulate and fester. It made me hate how much I
| wasn't getting done every day. One or two tasks a day piling up
| over the course of many days just grows into a mountain of shame,
| and as the author says, it builds this "UGH field" around it that
| makes me not want to look at it at all, much less try to wade
| through it. The system was hurting more than helping, really.
|
| I started using To-Do because we recently switched to Microsoft
| at work, and I'm trying to embrace the ecosystem or whatever. And
| what was an annoying deficiency (why can't this crappy MS app do
| what I want) has become a huge relief.
|
| Automatically having my day reset every day has helped me feel
| more like I can actually get through most of what I realistically
| intend to do in a day. I take a minute in the morning to throw
| stuff on the list, MS does helpfully suggest some things
| (presumably using something they now call "AI"), and then I start
| working down it. At the end of the day, anything I didn't get to
| -- honestly, anything that wasn't as important as I thought it
| would be that day -- is gone. The next day, I start fresh. Re-
| focus, re-prioritize, and start executing. Everything still gets
| done, but my focus is on the day ahead rather than days past. And
| no "ugh field."
|
| I would note that my approach to projects with teams is
| different, of course. All of those tasks will eventually need to
| get done, so it's not helpful to let things disappear. But where
| this does apply is in how much a given contributor wants to bite
| off in a day. The backlog on a project is the backlog, no getting
| around it, but a tighter focus each day on whatever's realistic,
| 3-5 tasks probably, relieves a lot of tension that helps work be
| more effective, I find.
|
| Last comment, I love that the author also puts things on the list
| just to scratch them off. I picked up this habit somewhere long
| ago. It seems silly to do something, then put it on the list,
| then just scratch it right off, but it has the real effect of
| notching another task done. Helps limit the days where you feel
| like you didn't actually do anything, those yak-shaving days. You
| can look at the "completed" tab and see that no, you did actually
| do stuff. Another source of shame neutralized.
| Tomte wrote:
| > One of my early frustrations with Microsoft's "To-do" app was
| that it discarded my "today" tasks every day. But now I love
| that it does this, for the reasons the author describes.
|
| To-do is surprisingly great. It's my GTD tool of choice at the
| moment.
|
| They change things, though, and you can't switch a setting. For
| some time they stopped adding tasks with due date on the
| current day to the "My day" smart list.
|
| It makes sense if you think about it in terms of what they
| wanted "My day" to be. Adding things to "My day" should be a
| conscious choice.
|
| But it was a change, and it's very nice to have due tasks
| automatically added. They changed it back after a few weeks,
| thankfully.
| MengerSponge wrote:
| I really like "To-do" and am so glad it's integrated into
| Outlook's Mac client now. I wish there was a way to show _all_
| tasks, regardless of their list /categorization.
|
| As it stands, this really stops me from using separate lists
| for timebound tasks. I only use them for long-term
| planning/blue sky stuff.
| Simorgh wrote:
| I've struggled with improving my executive functioning.
|
| I think it can be negatively affected by mental health issues and
| can take time to recover and get back to parity.
|
| I've found that voice-memos are particularly effective in
| assisting me. I'll talk through a problem and usually find
| solutions quickly, eg debugging.
|
| Am currently working on a (transcribed) voice-interface to
| improve in this area, right now.
|
| I might try out his formula tomorrow, possibly in voice.
| idamantium wrote:
| When I've been in low periods in terms of anxiety or mood,
| externalizing seems to be a salve. When I look back at how I've
| externalized in those periods, it seems excessive. It's like my
| executive functioning is no where in sight, and I can see that
| in how much I had to externalize to get a handle on things. But
| those periods of parity do return.
|
| It's great to hear you've found methods that work for you.
| Voice-memos must feel lower friction than writing things out.
| zoogeny wrote:
| I find this is the same for me with writing in a journal. It
| is almost like an analogy with inertia. It takes a lot of
| effort to get started and then momentum kicks in.
| idamantium wrote:
| This reminds me of some good practices I've learned from
| implementing GTD principals. Even with my massive GTD-style
| lists, which I love, having a small paper list for that day, even
| if it repeats what's on the massive digital list, is a very nice
| focus function.
|
| Also helpful is to have a list of no more than 3 weekly
| priorities. When I don't know what to focus on, I often look at
| those. They are most effective when I'm actually doing my weekly
| review. Also a practice that's so helpful and freeing.
| im3w1l wrote:
| I bought the GTD book. But then I went on to misplace it and
| didn't find it for over a year. I might be a hopeless case.
| TheHideout wrote:
| Every day I make a list in a long running text file. I typically
| copy the previous day and modify it. \\ [date]
| need - things that absolutely have to be done today
| really should do - things that I really should do today
| should do - other things I should do to get ahead / stay on
| top of want to do - what I actually want to do today
| if possible concerns - things that I'm currently
| concerned about (to help me resolve them without losing focus)
| one thing - I'm going to do this one thing for 3-4 hours
| straight today
| smeej wrote:
| I've been (semi-)intentionally unemployed for a little over a
| year now, and I reached a point a couple months ago where I just
| LOST IT at the prospect of having to continue to make decisions
| at every moment of every day about what to do next. I even have a
| daily checklist of about 15 things I need to do every day to keep
| making at least minimal progress toward my goals, but because
| none of them had assigned times, I was still having to _choose_
| every. damn. thing.
|
| So I decided the list should be done before lunch, which meant I
| could pick anything on the list, but it had to be something on
| the list. And after lunch, I have a list of three big-picture
| projects I can work on. I can choose any one of them, but it has
| to be one of them. Their next steps are reasonably well laid out,
| because I don't think I do generally have executive dysfunction
| issues, so I get to pick one of three projects and work on it
| until dinner.
|
| This has saved my sanity. I don't waste very much time at all
| now. I don't do well with strict routines, but these buckets take
| so much of the guess work out. In the morning, 15 options. In the
| afternoon, only 3. It's so much more manageable.
| dkga wrote:
| Funny, I've been doing a TODO list almost exactly like this daily
| plan every business day since 2009. An important thing for me is
| to consider it s list of things that may eventually be
| accomplished so that I don't feel guilty when I don't tick all of
| them. One difference for me is that in calmer days and on Mondays
| I also check my financial status and my own personal KPIs.
| (Another is that I don't throw away, I generally keep them
| because I use notebooks.)
|
| This process works very well for me. I learned it while working
| as a stock broker, where every day I needed to check specific
| economic indicators that would be published or company
| disclosures, call client X, Y or Z, and in days where options,
| swaps or forwards would expire I needed to check a few things. So
| I kind of got that behaviour ingrained in me, and it has helped
| me immensely I think.
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