Adit, [...]
I was setting deadlines for myself that were not crucial for company success at the time. One can argue that there are other deliverables that ARE crucial for success and these could now be squeezed into a 60 hr week..... but I say... why?
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Analyzing priorities is definitely one way to go, I have used it in the past, even in the work frenzy phase of my life I mentioned earlier. I usually look to eliminate uncertainties, gathering data wherever possible. Working on a task that stretches interminably, or often gets stuck for want of some input causes a lot of irritation, and that leads to stress. I am currently timing myself [1] on the time spent on this thread, but that's probably temporary until I set myself some rule of thumb metrics. Constant measurement of time causes too much overhead. Your recommendation is well taken, except I seem to be currently doing some of that already. I can definitely do more in that direction, let me think about it. Most of my planning and co-ordination tasks require loading a lot of variables into memory and chewing on them for a bit. When life interrupts I usually get annoyed, so my earlier quest for a fast task switching idea remains. One way is for me to break down large tasks into smaller portions, but this usually takes at least one or more unbroken long sessions in the beginning to identify the smaller tasks, and if the underlying variables change at some point during the exercise the smaller tasks either need to be thrown out of the window, or need reorganization. Cheeni [1] http://slimtimer.com
