This is cool and I’m glad it works for you, but it doesn’t really seem desirable to structure every single minute of your time in this way. Don’t you crave the freedom of unstructured relaxation time a little bit? Personally, after getting my shit together productivity-wise myself, I now actually find unstructured time moderately unpleasant, but I still find it really, really nice to have the option open. Also, I fear that never allowing yourself a break from your system and exclusively thinking of your life in twenty-five minute chunks could be a little damaging to mental health after a while in a “I can’t relax and live in the moment anymore” type of way. But maybe the productivity gains outweigh this downside?
This is cool and I’m glad it works for you, but it doesn’t really seem desirable to structure every single minute of your time in this way.
I agree: as I note in a recent comment, for maximum productivity one should allow oneself some predefined amount of leisure time. And I don’t think it’s advisable to lump these periods into the “unstructured procrastination” category: procrastination, however unstructured, is accompanied by guilt and other unpleasant feelings, whereas predefined leisure time should be enjoyed with peace of mind, in the knowledge that one is doing what will actually make one more productive overall. (I’m using ‘productive’ in the broader sense of ‘conducive to the fulfillment of one’s long-term goals’, whatever these goals may be—being happy, saving the world, earning more money, or what have you.)
Ah. I forgot to explain this in the article, but procrastination blocks are effectively “unstructured” in that I can do whatever procrastinatory task I want during them. (If I want to do something productive, though, I break it and take a productive block.) If I’m doing something that I don’t want to interrupt to feed the timer, I can use indefinite blocks or long blocks. I haven’t found the system exceptionally stressful, but this probably depends a lot on who’s using it and why. I suspect I might be a lot less comfortable with it if I hadn’t built it.
This is cool and I’m glad it works for you, but it doesn’t really seem desirable to structure every single minute of your time in this way. Don’t you crave the freedom of unstructured relaxation time a little bit? Personally, after getting my shit together productivity-wise myself, I now actually find unstructured time moderately unpleasant, but I still find it really, really nice to have the option open. Also, I fear that never allowing yourself a break from your system and exclusively thinking of your life in twenty-five minute chunks could be a little damaging to mental health after a while in a “I can’t relax and live in the moment anymore” type of way. But maybe the productivity gains outweigh this downside?
I agree: as I note in a recent comment, for maximum productivity one should allow oneself some predefined amount of leisure time. And I don’t think it’s advisable to lump these periods into the “unstructured procrastination” category: procrastination, however unstructured, is accompanied by guilt and other unpleasant feelings, whereas predefined leisure time should be enjoyed with peace of mind, in the knowledge that one is doing what will actually make one more productive overall. (I’m using ‘productive’ in the broader sense of ‘conducive to the fulfillment of one’s long-term goals’, whatever these goals may be—being happy, saving the world, earning more money, or what have you.)
Ah. I forgot to explain this in the article, but procrastination blocks are effectively “unstructured” in that I can do whatever procrastinatory task I want during them. (If I want to do something productive, though, I break it and take a productive block.) If I’m doing something that I don’t want to interrupt to feed the timer, I can use indefinite blocks or long blocks. I haven’t found the system exceptionally stressful, but this probably depends a lot on who’s using it and why. I suspect I might be a lot less comfortable with it if I hadn’t built it.
Right, but they’re still structured in that they have to be twenty-five minutes long, which is what I think I would find unpleasant.
Yeah, that’s probably true.