Watchmen

Watched Watchmen last night with Jono and Cat.

( spoilered thinking, slightly distracted by current watching of Moulin Rouge )

Focus and Energy

So I've been thinking about how to get things done when there are so many different *types* of things to get done. Mostly, I've been trying to find a good task sorter. There's ones where you list a task and how many points you get for completing it. There's ones where you list a task and how long you need to spend on it, so that there's a timer on your various tasks. There's ones that pretend to be smart and give you a list of tasks to do everyday. But none of those work for me, because they don't account for two variables to the tasks that affect how, when, and my drive to do them: Focus, and energy.

Focus: Some tasks take a high level of focus -- Basically, "can I watch tv while doing this?" "Can I listen to music while doing this?" "How easily is it to pull myself out of/into this task?

Energy: There's active energy, where I am creating something, and analytical energy, when I'm absorbing, learning, analyzing. And in the middle, what I call zombie energy -- where I'm completely zoning out.

So I put those on two axes and made a graph of some common tasks. (Note: I don't think there's a specifically dependent/independent variable here. If I have to pick one, I'd say the type of energy dictates how much focus is needed, but it looks prettier this way.)



There's some neat trends there -- generally, more energy = more focus.
Also, the things that I find very little incentive to do are the things that aren't on the two lines -- errands, reading fiction, etc. Unless that has a very high pay-off, like hanging with friends or snuggling.

But one thing this doesn't have is the *type* of focus these tasks have. For example, there are some tasks, like taking a walk, which are very low-level background type of focus, so I can actually combine tasks. Low-level background type focus tasks go well with punctuated tasks and some medium-level tasks. Punctuated meaning that you do it, stop, then do some more, like when I watch TV, I actually watch 1 minute, work for 5, etc. The dangerous ones are the ones that I can't stop doing, like surfing on the internet, and the the ones that I can't *start* doing, because the initial focus investment is so high.



So one thing this chart shows me is that sometimes I need to trick myself into doing odious tasks by combining it with low-level or punctuated other tasks. And also use those tasks to restrict my can't-stop tasks. Like "I'll surf the internet until this movie ends", or suchlike. This also makes me more aware of what tasks I can do given the energy that I have. For example, when I'm tired after work, I don't really have creative energy. When I wake up Saturday morning, however, I have a lot of creative energy, which is the perfect time to do a little comic plotting.

In the mail today...

1) 15 handles and 28 knobs for the kitchen cabinets
2) Loli skirt from Helena!

Here is a quick photo snagged via Photo Booth. I had to click and then run very far away, so I'm all a-flailing.