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In this issue
Daily to-dos in an analog way and fighting task completion bias
Some interesting things I read/watched/listened to lately
📝 How I keep my daily to-dos in an analog way and how I fight task completion bias
Few weeks back I finally received Ugmonk Analog. They call it a productivity system, but basically it’s a wooden card holder along with a pack of cards designed for keeping a daily todo list.
I was skeptical at first, but using it daily gives me so much joy and pleasure.
Analog doesn't replace your digital tools, it works alongside them. Working out of your inbox puts you on defense all day. Analog helps you focus on your most important work to move them close to your goals.
Here is how I use Analog these days. The system involves three elements:
Craft app
Things app
Ugmonk Analog deck
Tools
Craft is my go-to note-taking app. I’ve switched from Notion mostly because I hate how Notion works on iPad; Craft is a native app and it works flawlessly on any device. Aside from taking notes I’m using Craft to store my mid-term and long-term todos on my work-related stuff. Big projects I’m working on right now, and all of it’s small chunks of work, and things I need todo someday in a near future. All that kind of stuff goes into Craft.
Things is mostly for Admin/Family/Home/Entertainment tasks and short-term work-related tasks. I can’t plan long-term complex projects using Things so I prefer Craft for that, but on the other hand I can’t use Craft to quickly see all of my tasks for today in a nice clean way.
Analog is for today only. I write down things I want to do today across all areas and use it throughtout the day.
Daily Ritual
Each morning (on weekdays only) I take a new fresh Analog card.
I write down up to ten items from the Things app for today.
If I have more planned in Things I need to get rid of something.
On the back of the Analog card I list all of the meetings I have for today.
Below I list my deep work timeslots left (e.g., 11am – 3pm – 4h; 4pm – 6pm – 2h). This helps me schedule my deep work sessions.
Writing it down allows me to set the intent and focus on that time but doesn’t put too much pressure the same way seeing blocks in my Calendar does.
I cross off items from the list as I go through the day.
At the end of each day, I rate how productive I felt on a scale of 1 to 3 using Card Signals
Then I store today’s card.
Using something not just analog but beautiful provides mental and sensory joy I’m longing for every single day. But here lies a significant threat that can easily get unnoticed for days or even weeks. It’s called Task Completion Bias.
Task Completion Bias makes you feel good when you complete tasks, so you focus on fast, easy stuff & avoid hard ones, creating long-term issues.
I won’t go into much details, but there is an excellent research paper published by Harvard Business School titled A Focus on Completing Easy Tasks Hurts Long-Term Performance. It proves what everyone was thinking already. If you get too much delight from ticking off your to-do items, you’ll soon start doing only easy tasks and won’t get into more difficult long-term ones.
Here is how I’m tackling this one. I’m holding regular (once or twice per week) “no todo list days.” Essentially what it means is that I’m not planning any todos for that day. This day has only one single theme (e.g., “Work on Project X” or “Make progress on Project X”) and nothing else.
This helps move forward more long-term complex projects and:
a) not fixate on that ‘ticking things off’ feeling;
b) immerse myself into deep research or prototyping session that might end up as something completely different at the end of the day.
Instead of “no todo list days,” I used to write todos like “Work on Project X,” but that didn’t stick. Mostly because I felt anxious to cross off that single item as quickly as possible. With that type of work, it simply won’t fly. You need to dive into the unknown, and sometimes structure might even hurt your creativity.
This is especially relevant to early-stage projects when there are lots of unknowns. And this is precisely the kind of work I’m doing lots of right now as we outline our new company.
👓 Things I've been reading/watching/enjoying
How the US Stole Central America (With Bananas)
Johnny Harris is my favorite investigation journalist I know, and his YouTube is filled with unique jams and great storytelling. This one is exceptionally brilliant. It turns out the history behind the banana is filled with government coups, propaganda, and predatory corporations.
This is the story of how US imperialism gave us crappy bananas - and why the ones in your kitchen might be doomed.
10 Health Tech Predictions for 2022
Anyone interested in health tech should take a look. Boy, US healthcare is so complicated.
Opal C1 webcam
If you’re hosting lots of Zoom calls or any sorts of online meeting and want to look spectaclular on video you should consider getting this tiny $300 webcame. Image quality is phenomenal.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Until next week 👋🏻
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