I can’t multitask very well. But I can pipeline very well.
Lineup tasks so that they’re very efficiently done. Exploit geographic locality. Plan out the day so you know what can be batched together.
I brush my teeth in the shower, simply because it’s easier. There’s already water there. And you have to let your shampoo soak in any way. That’s just pipelining
Having a task list is great, you can use Google tasks, or a calendar app, or just a notepad. You don’t have to respond to every message as soon as it comes in. You can batch up all your instant messages till the end of the day and respond to them once a day. That’s fine.
Don’t let your email inbox be a task list. Keep your inbox empty at all times. Read it and then decide if it needs to be dealt with, make a task. The needs a response send the response immediately even if it’s I’ll get back to you if the data later. Then you’ll have a workable task list to batch and pipeline for day.
Don’t let other people’s asynchronous communication interrupt you. Unless there’s a phone call, it can wait. And if people are calling you you better make it clear to them it has to be an emergency.
Thx for the term. Is there a guide, a wiki with principles and examples of scheduling? I do SRS review before sleep and exercise right after studying to aid memorization (via 2 different mechanisms), but I’m sure missing something else.
There’s a million guides. I can’t recommend anyone specific. All my ideas of pipelining come from computer science books.
If you’re constantly evaluating your life, or your day, and thinking about how you could have done something more efficiently. You’re on the right track. Don’t over-optimize don’t overanalyze, but if you see easy wins take them.
Don’t overlook the power of no! You don’t have to do everything. There’s a lot of things you probably can just cut out of your life with no real quality of life impact. So figure out what you don’t have to do, which requires you having clear goals about what you want to do, but once you have those goals. You can prune your life so that you’re not doing a lot of stuff that’s not impactful for those goals
Same with me. Cannot multitask well, but am good at planning. I didn’t know about “pipelining”, that term was new for me. I generally depend on calendar reminders. My phone and PC are always on do not disturb. My phone rings only if I get a call or there is a reminder. Good for productivity and peace of mind.
I’m the opposite, I can multitask and jump between tasks easily but can’t plan for shit. Or rather can plan but not stick to it.
I’m the same way. I love multi tasking and I’m very good at it. It’s also a skill that gets me jobs.
I treat meals as ETD massage. Chewing, swallowing, head rubbing. All to relieve sinus pressure. Also helps with doing it consistently 3 times per day
You rub your head while you eat?
As a single brain person I avoid that. Every multitasking in my life is done entirely by my many multi core machines.
I try to avoid it, to be honest. I’m usually better at one thing at a time.
Same for intellectual tasks. But isn’t it better to listen to podcast while exercising? Or cook while listening to music and dancing? And making poem while brushing teeth in a cold shower ;D
