Task management by writing down tasks and gradually climbing up

• Breaking down and organizing the conversation:
  • As a premise, consider the “urgency” and “Motivation Energy” for each task.
    • Motivation Energy can be thought of as similar to potential energy (temporary term used until a better word is found).
  • The current problems are:
    • ① Trying to start the task at hand but ending up procrastinating.
      • This is because becoming fixated on tasks with high Motivation Energy as “urgent” causes the issue.
      • Trying to go from a low state (procrastination) to a high Motivation Energy state doesn’t work well.
    • ② Not being able to feel a sense of urgency even when the situation is actually serious.
      • One of the causes is Negligence due to familiarity with difficult situations.
      • However, the reason the problem hasn’t been resolved is that a method to make it less prone to procrastination hasn’t been considered.
        • Making it less prone to procrastination means artificially increasing the Motivation Energy of tasks with low urgency.
  • Causes:
    • It is too burdensome to consciously consider both the “Motivation Energy” and “urgency” of each task in the brain.
      • Therefore, both are not consciously considered.
      • As a result, correct judgments cannot be made, leading to the aforementioned problems.
    • For ①, it is because one is not conscious of the Motivation Energy.
    • For ②, there are too many tasks, making it unclear which task’s Motivation Energy should be artificially changed.
  • Solution:
    • It is difficult to always visualize Motivation Energy because it can change depending on the situation.
    • Instead, arrange tasks in order of urgency.
      • By doing so, one can focus their attention on considering Motivation Energy.
    • By doing this:
      • For ①, one can avoid making reckless task selections without considering Motivation Energy.
        • Imagine gradually climbing up tasks that are arranged in order of urgency.
      • For ②, it becomes clear which Motivation Energy to decrease/increase.
        • (Increase the Motivation Energy of the current state and decrease the Motivation Energy higher than the current state)
        • How to Decrease Motivation Energy
  • Concrete example:
    • When feeling unmotivated and procrastinating, start with brain-dead tasks for the time being.
      • Also, always list up “brain-dead tasks that can be done now” for this purpose.
      • Benefits:
        • Time is not wasted.
        • Gradually climb up from there.
        • By finishing brain-dead tasks when Motivation Energy is low and having excess energy, time can be saved without wasting it on those tasks when energy is high.

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The following are miscellaneous notes:

• I realized that sorting tasks by urgency is a difficult task.

  • [O(n^2) computational complexity]

• It’s not easy to develop a habit unless tasks are divided into urgent/okay to do/later.

  • This can be done in O(n).
  • After managing them like this, it seems good to have the mindset of not forcing oneself to work on urgent tasks.

• Motivation Energy

  • It’s similar to the discussion in /motoso/やる気を出す技術 (takker)
  • Oh, exactly (blu3mo)

• Notes after trying it for a while:

  • It’s important to always have that list in sight.
  • With this management method, if the “most urgent task” brings motivation, the second and third tasks are not often performed.
    • It’s fine if the number one task is a finite task, but it’s not good for tasks like SAT preparation that can take up infinite time.
    • It ends up being like, “The second and third tasks are urgent” when SAT is finished.- Countermeasure: When you start feeling that you are getting better at SAT, don’t forget to lower the “priority level” of the task.

• It is not good if the estimation of tasks that you haven’t worked on much is incorrect, and you set the priority level lower than it should be.

• Maybe you feel a little uneasy because unlike Google Calendar Full Registration Todo Management, there is no guarantee of progress in the future.

• But it doesn’t really matter as long as you are not able to execute Google Calendar Full Registration Todo Management properly at the moment.

• (axokxi) Lately, I have been conscious of taking action early as a means of mental care (to improve quality of life), rather than just focusing on whether I can finish it or not.

• I see, it seems like a good motivation to take action early (blu3mo).

• Finishing the work early is beneficial for mental well-being from various perspectives such as securing the Second Domain and self-affirmation for the work done (axokxi).

• There may be two causes:

  • Inability to have a sense of crisis.
    • Negligence due to familiarity with difficult situations
  • Even if you have a sense of crisis, you cannot take action.
    • /villagepump/焦燥感に駆られながらサボってしまう地獄

• Countermeasures:

  • Inability to have a sense of crisis:
    • Recognize that you are unable to have a sense of crisis and make efforts to artificially create a sense of crisis.
      • Collaborate with others to manage progress.
      • Expose your to-do list.
  • Even if you have a sense of crisis, you cannot take action:
    • The cause is the existence of hurdles in starting the work.
      • One solution is to deceive yourself.
        • If you convince yourself to sit at the desk for just five minutes, you will continue afterwards.
      • Also, writing down what needs to be done.
      • Moreover, one of the hurdles in taking action is wanting to choose the optimal action.
        • For example, thinking “I should solve practice problems before solving past exams” or “I should do tasks with closer deadlines.”
        • In such situations, it is often difficult to start working on the action B, which is “I should do B instead of A.”
          • In this case, you end up wasting time doing nothing and doing the most meaningless thing.
        • Therefore, it seems better to recognize this situation and think “I should do A instead of doing nothing.”
        • Do tasks that have a low hurdle to start or continue.
          • For example, timed exams.
          • /villagepump/頭を使わないオススメ単純作業 (Recommended simple tasks that don’t require much mental effort).
      • A task management method that seems to be a solution to this problem:
        • Write down what you can currently do and arrange them in the order of “tasks to be done now.”
        • This way, you can visually see the “tasks to be done now” that are higher than what you are currently doing.
        • The important thing is not to forcefully try to do the top task.
          • If you do that, it usually doesn’t work (if it did, you would have already done it).
        • Look at the tasks that are higher than what you are currently doing.
          • There should be something with a lower hurdle or something that motivates you.
        • At the same time, calmly think about how to lower the hurdle and increase motivation for the tasks that are higher than what you are currently doing.
          • By consciously considering this, you should start decomposing tasks, etc.
      • In summary:
        • ① Visualize the “tasks to be done now” in order.
        • ② Instead of aiming for the top of the list from the beginning, be conscious of gradually moving up.
        • That’s what I thought was important.
    • Also, efforts to raise the hurdle for tasks that should not be done now are necessary.
      • In fact, this seems to fall under the first problem of “inability to have a sense of crisis.”
      • Have a sense of crisis and raise the hurdle.

• Rather than using the term “hurdle,” it seems more appropriate to use the analogy of physical potential energy.- Instead of returning to the original energy level after overcoming a challenge, I stay in a high-energy state throughout the task.

• Also, it’s easier to imagine the slope of the potential.

• However, it may be difficult for others to understand.

• Well, it doesn’t really matter.