Two schedules

At the end of every year we make plans for the entire next year, fire years, decade. Some even dare to plan the entire century. We come up with big drawings, even bigger lists and even bigger charts that displays how much we know about how the future will look like, how are we going interact with it and make the best of it.

Yet, we forget about the day to day business, we treat as it is somewhat of a lower class. Maybe we do it because it is less compelling than the big stuff. Maybe it is because we can allow ourselves to have an abstract view of the future but for the day to day we have to be very specific. Maybe because the daily work is so specific for everyone that frameworks might get in the way instead of helping.

I have struggled with this for quite a while now and recently have arrived to the conclusion that by categorising the daily work into exploratory and actionable work, and batching tasks by those two categories allows for a mor productive day with lesser effort. 

Doing only exploratory work will get you design thousands of walls yet you will own none. Doing only defined work will get you building thousands of walls for other people. There is a balance we all have to find for our work that include both type of work. The balance is always shifting, at times you will be keeping your balance on one of the extremes, at other times you will be in the middle. 

If you keep finding yourself on one side of the balance, you must take a break and re-orient yourself because the more time you spend at one extreme the narrower your vision gets. In order to accomplish a healthy balance you will have to say no to some gains in one extreme. Sometimes you will have to force things in to regain a healthy balance.

Organising your work around these two schedules benefits your state of flow reducing the amount of time you switch contexts. Even though you don’t notice it, constantly switching between doing and exploring taxes takes a great toll on your energy level. This is caused by the fact that each schedule need a specific mindset and alternating between these two require a short down time and up time, and doing this multiple times a day exhausts you mental energy. Ever had a foggy brain at the end of the work day? It might be because of this.

My own approach