There’s a question on the Forum about how to deal with addictive tasks in time management systems which, like most of mine, rely on “standing out” and “little and often”.
What the writer of the question was querying was whether “standing out” is capable of dealing with a task which has an addictive quality built into it. Playing computer games is a good example, since they are specifically designed to be addictive. But there are plenty of others. Basically it boils down to “Would you rather be playing Minecraft than writing that difficult report?” Wouldn’t “Play Minecraft” always stand out rather than “Write Extremely Difficult Report”?
And, even worse, once you’d chosen “Play Minecraft” wouldn’t “little and often” turn into “a lot and most of the time”?
This is an extreme example of course, but there are plenty of minor tasks which can be distractions from the real work. On the face of it using methods relying on what you “feel like” doing are bound to fail when faced with tasks like these.
So what is the answer?
Years ago, long before I started this blog, my standard answer to the question “What can I do about distractions?” was “Put them on your list”. So if you are distracted because you are worrying about an upcoming exam, put “Prepare for Exam” on your list. If you are distracted because you are trying to write a report but worried about what you need to do for a meeting the next day, put “Prepare Tomorrow’s Meeting” on your list. If you’re distracted because you’re longing for a nice cold beer, put “Beer” on your list.
The key point here is that distractions are essentially mindless. Once you have made them matters of conscious choice you have gained control over them.
It’s a bit like pain. No one wants to feel pain, but the secret of dealing with pain, whether it’s physical or mental, is to put one’s full attention on it. You then to some extent become an observer of the pain rather than a victim of it.
It’s the same with distractions. If you are using “little and often” and “standing out”, you are less likely to be distracted by them, not more, because you have gained control of them with your mind.
That’s it. Can I get back to that game of Minecraft now?
AFTERNOTE:
I omitted to mention that most of my time management systems are designed to be addictive in themselves. That’s why I encourage people to use pen and paper, leave deleted tasks on the page and join contiguous done tasks with a short line. There’s a strong addictiveness in seeing those tasks being “mown down” and seeing the gaps between them get shorter and shorter.
Plus, keeping stats in terms of task done, rather than time spent, also encourages little and often. One gigantic four-hour session of Minecraft counts as one point. Sixteen quarter-hour sessions count as sixteen points, and you will have done at least another sixteen tasks in between. So 32 points!
Essentially you can look on a time management system like NQ-FVP as a computer game with a real life (yours) as its subject.