My newest experiment: Locking myself into a routine

[zedmango]

Thank you for the detailed reply! This is very helpful! I’ve bolded some of the key concepts for me to refer back to.

@mary

I’d want to make some bits more private first, but let me see if I can put together something useful.

If you could I would really appreciate it!

@mary

I would call not legit if I were sick (sick enough to call in sick for work) or some other thing of a larger magnitude happened

Another option could be disjunctive goals, which you’ve suggested before:

Thoughts on this policy? Derailment not legit if I have a meeting or sleep problem and do it by the end of the day

I’m inclined towards something like what Alys is suggesting, myself. I think that if the early deadline is something you’ll predictably have to miss, then I’d have the main goal with a late enough deadline that getting it done will always mean getting it done on time according to that deadline. Then I’d probably have a basic +1 goal that has an “OR” in the success conditions. (I’m really getting into these disjunctive success conditions, actually; let’s see if that sticks.) The second goal would…

The trick will be specifying the disjuncts with enough clarity to avoid weaseling but enough flexibility to account for life.

Are you still into disjuncts?

I may try something like your plan but with disjunctive goals.

@mary

The slots are broad enough

@mary

work is scheduled as two blocks at the moment and my meetings happen within those two blocks

Yeah, I think broad work slots will be key. Sounds like you just have very broad “work” slots and all work projects fit into that, rather than have more specific time periods for specific projects, right?

@mary

I also only require that I start the time slot on time. Some of those have secondary goals that also require that I go for the full time, but many don’t. What I’m looking to build is the habit and the consistency and so I think if I knew I had something coming up in the afternoon, maybe I could shorten the length of some of my morning items to leave room for it, while keeping the order intact to build that consistency.

I think this is really key and I always forget about this, but it’s always really helpful for me. Only having to start takes a lot of pressure off and helps me get more done.

And I love the idea of harnessing this for the purpose of building consistency in the sequence I do things in! That’s brilliant.