If I can't get to it today, I can do it tomorrow. If I don't get to it tomorrow, I can do it next week. If I don't get to it next week, I can do it next month.
Three weeks.
If three weeks go by, and you haven't gotten to something for which you have an intention, the probability that it will happen in the next three weeks shrinks to very unlikely. All those things that showed up every day during the last three weeks to push this thing to the next day and next week, are showing up in the upcoming three-week period.
Now notice that every three week period has at least one exceptional event. It's a holiday, a dentist or doctor appointment, guests from out of town, a minor illness for yourself or someone you're responsible for, some non-routine travel, a home or car repair emergency, an important deadline, a disruptive weather event.
I call this predictable randomness: things that are ultimately predictable but show up at random times. Your car, your home, a family member, or you are going to need maintenance. You don't know when. Weather events will slow you down or remove things from possibility. All those holidays, birthdays, visits, weddings keep showing up on your calendar and will need different levels of response from time to time.
Perhaps you've tried one of the exercises from the last two posts. You may have picked an hour to anticipate, log, and review. You may have chosen a day to anticipate, log, and review. Maybe you thought, I'm going to try that this week. Possibly that week got busy, you planned it for the following week. Did that week get busy?
No judgment here from me. Our lives are a moving target. Add to the vicissitudes of what shows up in time -- the ebbs and flows of our attention and energy -- and no hour, day, or three week period is easily predictable. The genius of Shrank and Hamermesh, introduced last week, was their recognition that what we often identify as slacking is our brains leading us into diversions as a way of getting it some rest. This tells us we need these mental rest stops more than we are conscious to.
Here's another exercise in metacognition. This time it's projecting our self awareness over a three-week period.
Look out over your calendar for the next three weeks. Look at your list of projects and priorities. If something's important to you. and you don't see time to act on it in the next three weeks, the likelihood that it will happen in the following three weeks isn't null, but it's not optimistic.
First make space for the threefold nature of work: planned work, planning work, and work as it appears. Make sure you have space for restoration. Don't underestimate your brain's need for diversion from work. Favor sunlight and star light over screen glow.
Screen shot, save as a pdf, or otherwise memorialize this three weeks of expectations.
At the end of the first week. Look back at the previous week's expectation. How does it match what actually happened? Of course, things changed. What do you learn from this?
Now look out over the remaining two weeks, and add the next week as your new third. Make a new preview. At the end of the week, preview what was originally week two, but now is last week. What did you learn? What are you doing differently with your next three weeks?
More next week.
Warm regards,
Francis Sopper