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Tiny chunks

| productivity, life

I want to get better at working in tiny chunks. Some of the things I find hard are:

  • getting incomplete thoughts out of my head when the kiddo interrupts so that I don't get grumpy (because of the Ovsiankina effect)
  • managing the stack of interrupting tasks and yak-shaving temptations
  • still making time for larger projects or things with less-immediate or more uncertain payoffs

Some general ways to improve:

  • Reduce friction so that more things can fit in less time.
    • Take notes
    • Improve workflows and tools
    • Create templates
  • Build momentum: focusing several chunks on one project to minimize context switches and make more progress
  • Lower expectations and split things up.
  • Start with a rough cut and then refine.
  • Use different types of work:
    • Organizing information can be easier than thinking up something new
    • Recognizing things from a list can be easier than recalling them from scratch

How can I get better at using tiny chunks in different aspects of my life?

  • Code:
    • Now that I'm on a more powerful computer, I'm looking forward to learning how to take advantage of LSP, completion, and other modern conveniences.
    • I can replace social media doomscrolling with reading APIs, guides, and code samples.
    • I can take more notes and review them.
  • Writing:
    • If I sketch my thoughts, that can help me think through things in a more nonlinear way at the beginning. Mindmaps and sketchnotes might actually be easier than using text outlines, since I can do them off my computer.
    • Dictation might help me turn other pockets of time into writing time, and then turn computer time into editing time.
    • Improving my workflows makes it easier for me to get the text out into a blog post that has a sketch or a video or a screenshot.
  • Drawing:
    • I can ask smaller questions so that I can get to an answer faster. I also don't have to flesh out the full thought in the drawing - I can use dictation or writing to add more details.
    • I can crop the image to remove the pressure to use the full page. I used to draw my thoughts on index cards. That was a good size for a small thought, and they were easier to build up into larger chunks.
    • I can use visual organizers, metaphors, and other structures to help me think through things. That might also give me additional insights.
  • Bigger projects: One of the things that sometimes frustrates me is having bigger projects that I can't figure out how to fit into smaller segments, or that take a lot of setup time and therefore tend to get deprioritized in favor of things with more immediate payoffs.
    • I have a few 1.5-hour chunks of focused time because of A+'s virtual school, and I might be able to reserve more time eventually. It might be good to have that time when I'm not prioritizing short tasks and quick wins. Aside from that, if I get focused time in the evening, the trade-off is usually that A+ binge-watches YouTube videos when I'm not focusing on her. Sometimes I'm okay with this because I really want some thinking time. It's better when I'm getting that focused time because she's off doing something with W-, though.
    • I tend to work on whatever I've been thinking about lately (availability bias), but it might be good to review longer-term projects/interests to keep them on my radar or make peace with archiving them.
    • Even the stuff that feels like very slow progress can be worthwhile.
  • Life:
    • Sometimes I feel a little distracted by things I want to do, but it's worth figuring out how to put stuff aside so that I can play. Bluey has plenty of examples of short games that could be fun to play with A+.
    • There's always time to work on health. Sometimes doing a single pushup makes it easier to do another, especially when the kiddo jumps in and starts exercising too.
    • Similarly, a small chunk of time is great for tidying.
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Emacs tweaks: Choosing what to hack on

Posted: - Modified: | emacs, life, productivity

[2024-01-22 Mon]: How do you combat being overwhelmed by choice? is somewhat relevant. I particularly like this comment which talks about delaying the decision to see if it still makes sense.

Is it the Emacs lifecycle that you tweak your config for few months and then you live off of fat of the land for >4 years? My Emacs config is a Org-tangle spaghetti that I touch only if I want to set some more sane config variable.

@xgqt@emacs.ch

This got me thinking about how tweaking my config fits in with other things I want to do–how I choose what to hack on and for how long.

Text from sketch

Choosing what to hack on - 2024-01-16-01

When it comes to computer work, I can usually choose what to do.

Idea -> Test

XKCD on automation: time to automate vs frequency x time saved

I focus more on what I'll enjoy (both the destination and the journey)

  1. How can I make this better?
  2. What's the smallest step I can take? What can I fit in 15-30 minutes?
  3. What's nearby?
    • Relevant functions or packages
    • Next steps, possibilities
  4. What kinds of notes can I leave for myself or others?
  5. like desire paths: where, what size
  6. or like a river wearing down rocks

Sometimes when I chat with other people about automation, this XKCD chart about Is It Worth the Time? comes up.

I realized that this isn't quite how I consider things. I'm lucky in that when it comes to computer things, I get to choose most of the things I spend my time on. My consulting clients have very long wishlists that I pick from based on interests and priority, and I play with Emacs for fun.

Drawing of a task sandwich with Emacs tweaking, the actual task, and blog posts and comments

Because I enjoy tinkering around with Emacs, I often build a little Emacs hacking into my tasks. 15 or 20 minutes of exploring an idea can make it even more fun to do the actual task it's supposed to help with because then I want to test it out. Then after the task is done, I get to write about it. It's like making a little task sandwich with really nice bread. This is also a little related to sharpening the saw, which is pretty fun in Emacs. (Vim people do it too!)

These little changes add up over time, making things even more enjoyable. It's a little like the way desire paths show where people actually walk between buildings and give a sense of how much they are used, or how rivers smooth down the edges of stones. The easier I make something, the more likely I am to do it, and the more I'll get to enjoy the results of my code. It's a little like the Igors described in this essay.

When I think about something I might tweak about my Emacs configuration, I usually consider the following:

1. How can I make this better?

I like looking for ways to reduce manual work or looking-up. I tend to have a hard time with tedious, repetitive tasks. I also keep an eye out for things I've been meaning to learn.

2. What's the smallest step I can take? What can I fit in 15-30 minutes?

Small steps make it easy to squeeze in things here and there. I know my brain's going to suggest half a dozen things along the way, so it helps to start as small as possible and capture most of the other things in my inbox for later. That way, I can get to experience the benefits right away without feeling lost.

Another advantage of picking really small tasks and using Org Mode to capture the rest of the ideas is that I can try to avoid the Ovsiankina effect.1 I spend most of my day taking care of our 7-year-old, so I squeeze in my focused-time tasks early in the morning before she wakes up. Sometimes I have little opportunities to work on things throughout the day, like when she wants to read a book or watch a video. She might do that for 15-30 minutes before wanting to connect again. If I pick the wrong-sized task or I don't dump enough rough notes into my inbox so that I can get the open loops out of my head and trust that I can pick things up again, the unfinished part pulls on my brain and makes it harder to enjoy time with her. Then I get tempted to let her binge-watch Minecraft or Rubik's cube videos2 so that I can finish a thought, which doesn't quite feel like good parenting.

Lastly, I don't usually understand enough about my needs to build something complex from the start. Trying things out helps me discover more about what's possible and what I want.

3. What's nearby?

Thanks to Emacs's amazing community, there are usually relevant functions or packages that I can borrow code from. I mostly have a sense of things from the blog posts and forum threads that cross my radar because of Emacs News, and I should probably get used to skimming the descriptions in the "New packages" list because that can help me find even more things.

When coming up with possible approaches, I also sometimes think about other related ideas I've had before. Filing those ideas into the appropriate subtrees in my Org files sometimes helps me come across them again. If I can take a small step that also gets me closer to one of those ideas, that's handy.

I also like to think about next steps and possibilities. For example, even if I spend an hour or two learning more about data visualization with Org Mode and plotting, that's something I can use for other things someday. This works pretty well with keeping things small, too, since small parts can be combined in surprisingly interesting ways.

Let me try to trace through a web of related features so I can give you a sense of how this all works in teeny tiny steps.

G defun defun my-include:...?from-regexp=...&to-regexp... my-include:...?from-regexp=...&to-regexp... defun->my-include:...?from-regexp=...&to-regexp... my details my details defun->my details defvar defvar defun->defvar emacsconf-el emacsconf-el defun->emacsconf-el context context defun->context my-include:...?name= my-include:...?name= my-include:...?from-regexp=...&to-regexp...->my-include:...?name= :summary :summary my details->:summary defun-open defun-open :summary->defun-open web links web links emacsconf-el->web links Embark Embark :comments both :comments both Embark->:comments both QR code QR code Embark->QR code :comments both->context web links->Embark

  • defun: I often wanted to write about a specific function, so I wrote some code to find the function definition and copy it into my export post hidden inside a details tag with the first line of the docstring as the summary. 2023-01-02
  • my-include:...?from-regexp=...&to-regexp...: Sometimes I wanted to write about longer pieces of code. I wanted to include code without repeating myself. The regular #+INCLUDE can handle line numbers or headings, but neither of them worked for the Elisp files I referred to since the line numbers kept changing as I edited the code above it and it wasn't an Org Mode file. I made my own custom link so I could specify a start and end regexp. 2023-01-08
  • my_details: I wanted to put the code in a details element so that it could be collapsible. I made an org-special-blocks template for it. special-blocks
  • :summary: For Org source blocks, I wanted to be able to do that kind of collapsible block by just adding a :summary attribute. 2023-01-27
  • defun-open: I wanted to sometimes be able to keep the function definition expanded. 2023-09-12
  • emacsconf-el: Since I was writing about a lot of EmacsConf functions in preparation for my presentation, I wanted a quick way to link to the files in the web-based repository. 2023-09-12
  • defvar: Made sense to include variable definitions too.
  • web links: The emacsconf-el links were so useful, I wanted to be able to use that type of link for other projects as well. 2024-01-07
  • Embark: I wanted to be able to copy the final URL from a custom link at point, so I used Embark. 2024-01
  • QR code: I started livestreaming again, so I wanted a quick way for viewers to get the URL of something without waiting for stream notes. 2024-01-10
  • :comments both: While scanning Reddit to find links for Emacs News, I learned about :comments both and how that includes references to the Babel file that tangled the code. 2024-01-07
  • context: Now that it was easy to link to the web version of an Emacs Lisp file, I thought it might be fun to be able to automatically include a context link by passing link=1. I also wanted to be able to navigate to the Org source code for a tangled function. 2024-01-11
  • my-include:...?name=...: I wanted to be able to refer to Org Babel source blocks by name.
I promise it's all connected. (Pepe Silva meme)

In the course of writing this blog post, I learned how to use URLs in Graphviz, learned how to include inline HTML for export with @@html:...@@, used position: sticky, figured out how to highlight the SVG using JS, used CSS to make a note that should only show up in RSS feeds, and submitted a pull request for meme.el that was merged. And now I want to figure out sidenotes or at least footnotes that don't assume they're the only footnotes on the page… This is just how my brain likes to do things. (Oooh, shiny!)

4. What kinds of notes can I leave for myself or others?

I might take years before revisiting the same topic, so good notes can pay off a lot. Also, when I share what I've been working on, sometimes people e-mail me or comment suggesting other things that are nearby, which is a lot of fun. The ideas I come up with are probably too weird to exactly line up with other people's interests, but who knows, maybe they're close enough to what other people work on that they can save people time or spark more ideas.

Inspired by Mats Lidell's EmacsConf 2023 talk on writing test cases, I've been working on writing occasional tests, too, especially when I'm writing a small, function to calculate or format something. That's a good way of sketching out how I want a function to behave so that I can see examples of it when I revisit the code. Tests also mean that if I change things, I don't have to worry too much about breaking important behaviours.

Ideas for next steps

How can I get even better at this?

  • Popping the stack (untangling interruptions and ideas): When I let myself get distracted by a cool sub-idea, I sometimes have a hard time backing up. I can get back into the habit of clocking time and practise using my org-capture template for interrupting task so that I can use C-u with C-c j (my binding for org-clock-goto) to jump to a recently-clocked task.
  • Braindumps can help me use non-computer time to flesh out notes for things I'm working on or ideas for next steps.
  • If I skim the descriptions of new packages in Emacs News (maybe even the READMEs instead of just the one-liners), I'll probably retain a brief sense of what's out there and what things are called.
  • Vector search across package descriptions and function docstrings could be an even more powerful way to discover things that are close to something I want to do.
  • Using elisp-demos to add more examples to functions can help me look up things I frequently use but don't remember.
  • Figuring out more modern IDE features like refactoring support, on-the-fly error checking, and code navigation could help me code faster.

So that's how I tinker with Emacs for fun: start with something that mostly works, keep an eye out for opportunities to make things better, use tinkering as a way to make doing things more fun, look for things that are nearby, and

Footnotes:

1

I used to think this was the Zeigarnik effect, but it turns out the Zeigarnik effect is about remembering incomplete tasks versus completed tasks, while the Ovsiankina effect is more about intrusive thoughts and wanting to get back to that incomplete task.

2

At the moment, she likes Eyecraftmc and J Perm.

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Making my to-do list more detailed; process versus outcome

Posted: - Modified: | emacs, org, productivity

Some time ago, I wrote some code to make it easier for me to update my web-based Quantified Awesome time logs from Org Mode in Emacs, clocking into specific tasks or quickly selecting routine tasks with a few keyboard shortcuts. I've been refining my/org-clock-in-and-track, my/org-clock-in-and-track-by-name, and defhydra my/quantified-hydra, and I've been getting used to the new workflow. The more I smooth out the workflow, the more possibilities open up. Because I've set it up to prompt me for a time estimate before I start a task, I can see a running clock and timer in my modeline, and Emacs lets me know if I'm running over my estimate. Come to think of it, this makes it even easier to track at the detailed task level than to track at just the medium-level categories available through my web or mobile shortcuts. (If you're curious about the Emacs Lisp code, you can check out my Emacs configuration.)

I've also been sorting out my workflow for quickly adding tasks. C-c r t (org-capture, with the t template I defined in org-capture-templates) displays a buffer where I can type in the task information and set a time estimate. From there, I can file it under the appropriate project with C-c C-w (org-refile), or maybe schedule it with C-c C-s (org-schedule).

Since both creating and tracking tasks are now easier, I've been gradually adding small, routine tasks to my task list. This includes household tasks such as vacuuming and quick computer-based tasks such as checking for replies to @emacs. These tasks are in my routines.org file or tagged with the :routine: tag, so I can sort them in my Org agenda view or filter them out if I want.

It might be interesting to bring that data from Emacs to my mobile phone, but it's not particularly important at the moment. I'm usually home, so I can just check my org-agenda throughout the day. If I'm out for some errands, my errand list is short enough to remember (or quickly note somewhere), and I can use my phone to quickly jot short notes to add to my to-do list when I get back.

The next step for that workflow would probably be to improve my views of unscheduled tasks, choosing new things to work on based on their time estimates, contexts, or projects. I already have a few org-agenda-custom-commands for these, although I still need to tweak them so that they feel like they make sense. Project navigation works out pretty well, though, and it'll get better as I gradually clean up my Org files.

It feels a little odd to use my to-do list this much throughout the day, compared to the less-structured approach of deciding at each moment. The day feels less leisurely and expansive. Still, there's a certain satisfaction in crossing things off and knowing I'm taking care of the little things. I'll find a new balance between the number of items on my list and the time I want to use to follow the butterflies of my interest or energy. Maybe I'll use tags or priorities to highlight energizing tasks, the

. (Ooh, I wonder how I can get different colours in my org-agenda.) In the meantime, I think that fleshing out my to-do list even more – capturing the little routines that might get forgotten if I get more fuzzy-brained or distracted – may help me in the long run.

I think one of the things about working with a list of small, varied tasks is that there's less of that feeling of accomplishing a big, non-routine chunk. One way I can work around this is to pick a dessert-y project focus for the morning and finish several tasks related to it, before getting through the rest of the routine tasks. There's also a different approach: focusing on the process instead of the outcome, cultivating the satisfaction of steady progress instead of the exhilaration of a win. If I keep on improving my workflow for managing tasks, ideas, and reviews, I think it will pay off even as circumstances change.

2015-12-04e Process versus outcome -- index card #productivity #mindset #perspective #stoicism #philosophy

2015-12-04c Preparing for steady progress -- index card #productivity #fuzzy #preparation

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Embracing the fuzziness

Posted: - Modified: | productivity

I'm feeling a little more clear-headed at the moment – not as fuzzy-brained as before. Well, there's the slight matter of my ongoing cough and congestion, so I'm not quite all the way there, but I can think more easily than I did last week.

Cycling through different mental states (normal, squirrel, fuzzy, etc.) in quick succession has been helping me get better at differentiating among them, and I've been thinking about how I can make the most of them. In particular, I've been thinking about the consequences of considering one or the other as my "default" state, or of getting rid of the notion of a default state altogether.

2015-05-03e Default or majority state and fuzziness -- index card #fuzzy

If I think of clarity as my normal state and fuzziness as a short interruption, then when I'm sharp, it makes sense to make the most of it, and when I'm fuzzy, it makes sense to do the background work that will help me make the most of my next sharp period.

If I think of fuzziness as my normal state and clarity as a gift, then when I'm clear, it makes sense to invest a lot into building the systems, habits, and skills that would make fuzzy times even better. I'm not sure how probable this is, but I'm leaning towards it being likely, even though I tend to remember my past as clear. I'm basing this on the fact that many people around me have reported being relatively slower compared to their younger selves, possibly due to age and circumstances. On the other hand, I know a few people who are older than I am and who seem to be accelerating, so there's something to be said for that.

A mix of both strategies seems to make sense. I can spend some time putting the infrastructure in place to do well during fuzzy times, and I can also take advantage of quick sprints to make things happen when I have a clear idea.

So that might translate into the following:

2015-05-02e When I'm sharp, when I'm fuzzy -- index card #fuzzy

When I'm sharp, that's the time to lean in on health and systems and skills, the time to act on ideas and explore questions, the time to come up with lots of ideas and define tasks that I can do while fuzzy. It's important to write, too, so that I can remember what it's like to be sharp.

When I'm fuzzy and don't feel particularly like pushing, that's a good time to focus on self-care and close relationships. It's okay to relax, to observe, to explore.

One of the nice things about being fuzzy is that it's easier to explore alternatives and develop skills; it's all right to do something you're mediocre at when you feel mediocre at everything, or too fuzzy to do things you're normally excellent at. <laugh>

And there's always the philosophical practice at being patient and dealing with challenges… It's good.

Hmm. What's a good way for me to tell whether I'm under-preparing, over-preparing, or getting the balance right?

2015-05-05f Balancing preparation and action in different mental states -- index card #fuzzy #sharp

Hmm. It might be interesting to revisit my notes on the kinds of things I can do when I'm sharp and when I'm fuzzy (High energy and low energy activities). That might help me detect if I'm using my sharp time well.

Also, it's okay not to totally optimize this. =) I can be a little inefficient.

There's definitely more fuzziness in my future. It might be interesting to graph this to see when I'm majority-sharp and when I'm majority-fuzzy, but even without those patterns, it can help to start slowly thinking about how I can make this better. Hmm…

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Enjoy the prep work

| productivity

In sewing, the actual sewing–the stitching of layers of fabric together–seems to be such a small part of it.

There’s choosing a sewing pattern, or making one up.

There’s choosing the fabric, thinking of how it feels, drapes, stretches, handles, and washes.

There’s tracing, marking, and adjusting the pattern.

There’s cutting the fabric. Accuracy in this step makes everything else easier.

There’s marking and pinning. How you pin it together depends on how you want the finished piece to feel like.

Sometimes there’s lining, sometimes there’s interfacing. I haven’t learned how to really work with these yet.

And then – sewing! But just a little at a time, because…

There’s pressing, which is a little like ironing except with more time and pressure. This is what creates those creases and curves. It’s important to do this. If you skip it, your seams might pucker or puff. Things just don’t hang right without it.

Sometimes you trim things with scissors, or carefully rip threads and resew if needed.

And then more pinning, more sewing, more pressing, more cutting… So much of sewing is outside that narrow definition of “sewing.”

Cooking is like that too: choosing tastes, recipes, ingredients; preparing the ingredients; cooking!; adjusting the taste; serving.

What are the writing equivalents? Researching, outlining, writing, revising, packaging.

Coding? Planning, coding, testing… Maybe testing is like pressing – it helps make different pieces of code fit together neatly.

It’s like these activities have a part where you can say “This is it! I’m sewing/cooking/writing/coding!” But all the other parts might be even more important than that one bit. Hmm.

The trick, perhaps, is to enjoy those other parts as well, even if you don’t feel you’re making good progress, even if it’s not the part with the pay-off or the glamour. Doing the prep work well makes the main work more effective and enjoyable.

I wonder if life works the same way too…

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Tell the difference between diminishing returns and compounding growth when it comes to investing in skills

Posted: - Modified: | learning, productivity

When is it worth improving a skill you're already good at, and when should you focus on other things?

I started thinking about this after a conversation about what it means to master the Emacs text editor. Someone wondered if the additional effort was really worth it. As I explored the question, I noticed that skills respond differently to the investment of time, and I wondered what the difference was.

For example, going from hunt-and-peck typing to touch-typing is a big difference. Instead of having to think about typing, you can focus on what you want to communicate or do. But after a certain point, getting faster at typing doesn't give you as much of a boost in productivity. You get diminishing returns: investing into that skill yields less over time. If I type a little over 100 words per minute, retraining bad habits and figuring out other optimizations so that I can reach a rate of 150 words per minute isn't going to make a big difference if the bottleneck is my brain. (Just in case I'm wrong about this, I'd be happy to hear from people who type that fast about whether it was worth it!)

Some skills seem shallow. There's only so much you can gain from them before they taper off. Other skills are deeper. Let's take writing, for instance. You can get to the point of being able to competently handwrite or type. You can fluently express yourself. But when it comes to learning how to ask questions and organize thoughts I'm not sure there's a finish line at which you can say you've mastered writing. There's always more to learn. And the more you learn, the more you can do. You get compounding growth: investing into that skill yields more over time.

I think this is part of the appeal of Emacs for me. Even after more than a decade of exploring it and writing about it, I don't feel I'm at the point of diminishing returns. In fact, even the small habits that I've been focusing on building lately yield a lot of value.

No one can objectively say that a skill is shallow or deep. It depends on your goals. For example, I think of cooking as a deep skill. The more you develop your skills, the wider your possibilities are, and the more enjoyable it becomes. But if you look at it from the perspective of simply keeping yourself fueled so that you can concentrate on other things, then it makes sense to find a few simple recipes that satisfy you, or outsource it entirely by eating out.

It's good to take a step back and ask yourself: What kind of value will you get from investing an hour into this? What about the value you would get from investing an hour in other things?

Build on your strengths where building on those strengths can make a difference. It can make a lot of sense to reach a professional level in something or inch towards becoming world-class. It could be the advantage that gets you a job, compensates for your weakness, opens up opportunities, or connects you to people. On the other hand, you might be overlearning something and wasting your time, or developing skills to a level that you don't actually need.

When you hit that area of diminishing returns – or even that plateau of mediocrity – you can think about your strategies for moving forward. Consider:

These questions are helping me decide that for me, learning more about colours is worthwhile, but drawing more realistic figures might not be at the moment; learning more about basic Emacs habits is better than diving into esoteric packages; and exploring questions, doing research, and trying things out is likely to be more useful than expanding my vocabulary. I'll still flip through the dictionary every now and then, but I can focus on developing other skills.

How about you? What are you focusing on, and what helps you decide?

Related: Good enough, good, awesome: Thinking about what I want to get to – March 2014

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Intentionally interrupting momentum and limiting flow

Posted: - Modified: | productivity

You know how when you get going on something, you want to keep going? It’s a great feeling. You’re in the flow, you’re in the zone. Time passes unnoticed. You’re getting stuff done.

I don’t trust that feeling. At least not all the way.

Here’s what got me thinking about this: I had just finished sketchnoting a book. It was fun. I felt accomplished. I wanted to do another sketchnote. In fact, I had already returned the previous book, picked another book from the shelf, and settled in for more drawing.

Then I stopped and asked myself, Is this really what I should be doing next? I was basking in the glow of people’s appreciation on Twitter and I already had all my tools set up for doing the next book, so it made sense to do another sketchnote. But was that really the best use of that moment?

More of the same, or something else?

I still stay up too late programming sometimes. I still spend hours reading. I still write my way past lunch, snapping out of the trance, suddenly starving, late in the afternoon. But I’m getting better at paying attention when part of me pipes up with weird questions.

I dug deeper and found these sub-questions that help me evaluate whether to continue or whether to switch, and what to do next:

Sure, sometimes I’ll lose myself coding or writing or drawing. But sometimes it’s good to interrupt my momentum and ask: What’s important to do, even if it’s not currently as shiny or as fun as what I’m doing?

Do you do this too? What have you learned? What questions do you ask yourself to help you decide what to do next?

Related posts:

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