In the absence of status updates, hereâs a C problem instead.
I have tasks that are necessary âfor a specific projectâ. I can write them down and forget about them until I actually feel like doing the project.
I also have tasks that have to be done âtodayâ, like laundry. Sure. They go in the âtodayâ section of a todo app.
But what should I do with tasks like âwatch a video that a friend sent meâ?
For me, the only way they get their chance is to hold them in a separate list (âsoonâ, mine is called), and every few days (I do it every Sunday and Wednesday), pick one or two off that list and add them to the dayâs to-dos for one of the next 0 to 3 days. Itâs a meta-system thing that works for me.
I created a list called âInstead of distractionsâ in Things, containing things like âwatch a video that a friend sent meâ, âfigure out where to put [something that has been lying around for a long while]â, etc. Weâll see if it works.
Regularly picking tasks from that list should be better, but not yet.
I have realized that I constantly feel like âI see problems with how I approach work, but I donât fix themâ and then I immediately forget about this.
So, this section will be about
fixing
the problem
For example, a step I took today towards fixing the problem of not doing regular reflection on work tasks progress is a) this post and b) I put a pen and a small notebook into my pocket.
The notebook idea is working really well so far. I donât even need a reminder to write in the small notebook, I just feel better when writing there so I do it automatically.
Reflection topics can include things like âI see X as a problemâ or âI would like to start doing Y perhapsâ. Some of the notes I wrote there already led to extra actions, which is neat.
The problem of âI donât prioritize important thingsâ is still unsolved.
Taking a short vacation helped. I still have 30 vacation days left so I could be doing it more often. Although smth like âthree days every monthâ already exhausts the vacation days ಠ_ŕ˛
I coworked in a conference room in the office today and it was neat. Better than working in an open space all the time.
I have to remind myself that this section is about the progress on regular-ing the reflection, not reflection itself.
I am still writing into the tiny âReflectionâ notebook at work.
I also created a meeting for myself in the work calendar â I donât know if it would work though. Maybe it would work on the days Iâm the office, but I foresee I would have trouble on the other days.
Iâm still sleepy a lot. No motivation on the weekends or when I donât have people around. Iâll ask about switching from Strattera to Ritalin? Idk.
Blocking distracting apps has helped with sleep a bit, I think. Not so much with doing tasks.
I feel slightly burned out at work still, and booking another day off should help.
Iâd also like to have a day when Iâm working but not reachable. We donât have precedent for that, but I think it would be a good idea. Made a Things project for that.
Booked two more coworking days for the next week.
I wonder / suspect whether wanting to sleep, get distracted, spend half an hour in the shower, etc means thereâs an underlying issue to address and not simply âI got lazy about forcing myselfâ. Probably?
The calendar event partly worked. I mean, it fully worked, but I started at 4:50 instead of 4:45. Anyway. Made a todo to create another event for Wednesday.
I also want to do regular reflection on how documentation is going, but rn Iâm tired.
Work is improved by getting up earlier. I think I broke the cycle of [bad sleep] by smoking three cigs two days ago? Like, generally it sometimes happens that I get too much in my head and life seems like a struggle â then I smoke or get drunk â the next day I feel meh physically but I clean my flat, etc, and have better days afterwards.
Didnât do any reflection today b/c partly sleep deprived and partly because the day was busy. Didnât need the reflection notebook to find things to work on, or to get myself to work.
I guess reflection isnât necessary all the time? Only when things are not going well. Or sometimes just in case things could be going better.
I formulated today that âa senior developer might be doing things this way or that way but they donât keep doubting themselves / changing direction all the timeâ. I think when working on some tasks I canât devise a solution / commit to a solution that would be âgood enoughâ. Remembering that âessentially almost anything is workableâ would help.
Yesterday I started doing reflection, but it got thwarted by a board games session.
I donât always write when I recognize an issue (eg. âThere is apparently a task that I donât want to doâ). Sometimes I just feel vaguely âehâ and do other stuff instead.
Continuing the previous thought â generally itâs a common occurrence that I feel bad about having tasks that I keep not doing.
Perhaps I should recognize that the existence of these tasks affects me mentally, and this could be in itself motivation to do them.
I remember the advice to schedule time for these icky tasks, but I think I donât have enough self-control / energy to do them even if I schedule time for them.
Anxiety could be an additional obstacle here.
Or burnout. I have scheduled another vacation day and should schedule at least one or two more, I think.
Hey Emily, hereâs something Iâve discovered by accident, which feels like the sweet spot in motivating me. When I think of a task I think itâd be good to do (eg, Iâm dusting and I see that the kitchen cabinet doors are grungy) then I add the task to my to-do app â Appleâs Reminders, in my case: eg, âwipe down kitchen cabinet doorsâ. I give it a date, just so it will show up in my Today view, which I look at every morning before I create my actual task list for the day in my ârealâ to-do app (Intend). Thereâs no pressure to do it today; itâs just there in Reminders as a, well, reminder that I thought it would be good to do.
What I find is that the longer a no-pressure thing sits on that list, the more motivated I get to cross it off. It doesnât feel like pressure, because I didnât put it there as a have-to-do, just a good-idea-I-had. The feeling is just increasing motivation. At some point, the motivation is strong enough that I want to do it today, and I add it to my actual to-do list, and feel great about getting to cross it off.
(The âdiscovered by accidentâ part is that I used to do this same thing but putting it on Reminders as a âhave-toâ which felt stressful and eventually I felt both overwhelmed by crap I âhad toâ do AND like a lazy failure because I still didnât do it, day after day after day. Then I had an epiphany which is that I could TOTALLY just capture good ideas with no pressure to actually do them, and deliberately decide down the road whether to do them on a particular day. So I split out my apps, so Reminders could just be âcapture ideasâ with no âhave to doâ pressure, and a different app (back then it was Things, now itâs Intend) would be where actually committing got done. After I set it up this way, I discovered that just having things on a captured-ideas list gradually built motivation for doing them. Win!)
Not much reflection recently. I think itâs because I got better at doing tasks without reflection. This said, I still do it sometimes.
I just made a task to schedule another reflection session in the work calendar.
80mg Strattera works significantly better than 40mg and I think also better than 60mg.
I scheduled a day with email/teams off and I hope Iâll get some small work tasks done that day that Iâve been postponing for months.
Itâs been tricky this week to get myself to come to the office; yet working at home is also meh. The new coffee place nearby doesnât have Wi-Fi yet. The people I was coworking with are both on leave this week. I made a reminder to ask them when theyâre back.
SPRING HAS BEGUN. Good. I was surprised to learn that almost the entire world uses astronomical seasons and only Russia, Belarus, possibly Ukraine, Australia, Pakistan and something else are exceptions. Fine 
Anxiety is diminishing imo. And I can handle it better.
Opal and one sec are working well. When Discord is blocked, I donât go there. When Discord is not blocked, I go there. Strong correlation.
I tried it several times, I think, but I always felt bad about not doing any of the âSomedayâ tasks.
After reading your post I thought âfine, Iâll try it just to be able to demonstrate that it doesnât work cuz I have too many tasks in my headâ. I put all tasks into the âSomedayâ category in Things, and now I think Iâm actually less stressed about them.
Iâm still not doing them though but Iâm less stressed, which is always good.
If anxiety is the reason Iâm not doing them, then I expect Iâll start doing them when I have less anxiety.
Treating some of them as exposure therapy might also be good.
Still not going well b/c Iâm still not writing there enough. Working till late and then too tired for reflection. Generally somehow not leaving myself energy for non-work. Idk.
I donât know how to get myself to have a better relationship with work. Not sure what a âbetter relationshipâ would even be. I donât have any particularly clear things I want to achieve, and I donât have that much energy for doing stuff outside of work.
In fact, even right now Iâm tempted to open the work laptop and try to accomplish something useful. Because it would be satisfying to accomplish something, and would be unsatisfying to go to bed.
I think Iâm getting a slightly clearer idea for why it would be unsatisfying to go to bed â because I can actually foresee feeling bad. But itâs a very low-key foreseeing. Hard to consciously notice.
Unrelatedly, one thing I can definitely improve is doing tasks when there are small windows for them
Eg. I was in the bathroom right now and I could schedule a wash cycle for the morning. And I did. And it took like two minutes. But it still required effort to make myself do it?
I think more would get done if I did things when I have tiny bits of free time
this reminded me that i wanted to do laundry tonight. thanks for reminding me in time! :)
and good luck with your goals and your energy. 
you can achieve a great work-life-balance, i believe in you!
I had reflection scheduled for today (in the calendar), but just ignored completely. Maybe because I feel like I was working all day and didnât talk to anyone.
On the other hand, I wrote here, in WOC, and in an internal mental-health channel. So some reflection got done.
I like the idea of âa day without distractionsâ and already made a task to schedule another. I think itâs good for doing tasks that normally never get done because something else is more urgent.
Looking forward to more coworking now that [coworker] is back in Warsaw.
Still sleepy a lot.
Listening to a lecture on anxiety and avoidance.
What am I avoiding: working on Brick. Why: I will work on it and spend a lot of time on some minor thing and even if everything gets done Iâll just deploy a new version and then forget about it for another month. But also I wonât even finish it. So overall itâll be just an evening spent doing some minor task for no reason.
What am I avoiding: researching emigrating to the US. Why: even if I research I still wonât do anything anyway because ADHD.
Enough for now
As a side note, learning how to do tasks in order might be useful. Currently, even if I put a task in my daily list I have no assurances I will even try to do it, because I do tasks out of order and I might just skip it. So some tasks may never get done.
Iâll add it to the template.
The current template is therefore:
Not going well. Which makes sense this week cuz a) Iâm sick b) remote coworkers came to Warsaw and I was hanging out w/ them.
I did tasks in order today! Work tasks, at least. And it was nice.
Update: a problem with home tasks (unlike work tasks) is that everything is together. âLaundryâ, âmake teaâ, âdo a thing about [project]â, âwrite to [person]â, etc. I feel like itâs problematic.
I bought two new notebooks, with the idea that one of them will be specifically for Brick tasks and the other idk. Maybe if I split Brick tasks out, at least they will be getting done in order? Not sure.