Any discussion of time management which acts like time is the actual limiting factor has already missed the point, at least for me personally.
Oh indeed! All the time management advice starts from a position of “you have things you want/need to do but are too busy to fit everything in”, when for me it’s “you have things you need to do and time to do them in but can’t be motivated to get off your lazy backside to do them” :-)
Well, kinda. As this thread (among other things) makes clear, managing time and managing motivation are different things. Technically speaking, calling managing your motivation “time management” is a misuse of the term.
I would guess that the real problem here is the fear of not choosing correctly. (Which ironically leads to choosing even worse.) Fear indeed is the mind-killer, or at least a motivation-killer for mental tasks.
I imagine that a possible approach could be to limit the time when you are making the choice. For example, on Sunday you would decide what are you going to do the following week, and precommit that you will not change your decision during the week. Then, during the week it would be obvious what to do. And if you remember something else, just write it into a diary and review it on the next Sunday.
The idea is that you would only commit to the direction of your work, not the amount of the work you want to do. If you feel tired, take a rest. Don’t push yourself into anything. It’s just, don’t longer ask yourself “Haskell or type theory”, because you have already answered that for the whole week.
Yes, insofar what makes a term meaningful is its uselfulness for communication :-) But your point is valid, “time management” is basically the management of your own attention and effort.
Found this in SSC Open Thread:
Well, kinda. As this thread (among other things) makes clear, managing time and managing motivation are different things. Technically speaking, calling managing your motivation “time management” is a misuse of the term.
I would guess that the real problem here is the fear of not choosing correctly. (Which ironically leads to choosing even worse.) Fear indeed is the mind-killer, or at least a motivation-killer for mental tasks.
I imagine that a possible approach could be to limit the time when you are making the choice. For example, on Sunday you would decide what are you going to do the following week, and precommit that you will not change your decision during the week. Then, during the week it would be obvious what to do. And if you remember something else, just write it into a diary and review it on the next Sunday.
The idea is that you would only commit to the direction of your work, not the amount of the work you want to do. If you feel tired, take a rest. Don’t push yourself into anything. It’s just, don’t longer ask yourself “Haskell or type theory”, because you have already answered that for the whole week.
Yes, insofar what makes a term meaningful is its uselfulness for communication :-) But your point is valid, “time management” is basically the management of your own attention and effort.