Attention management
Pick what deserves your focus instead of counting the minutes
One project at a time. You stay on it until it ends or until the ideas run out, instead of chopping the day into scheduled slots. The reasoning starts from a claim about people: we make poor parallel processors. So the gain comes from picking work worth sinking into, then refusing to switch away. Punctuality is the cost. Practitioners run late, and argue that time management mostly teaches you to notice the minutes you waste, then waste more feeling bad about it.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Adam GrantDoes it
Organizational psychologist · Think Again
By his own account he is bad at time management and has gotten good at attention management. So he stays on one project until the ideas or the hours run out. Chronic lateness is the cost he accepts for it.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #399 transcript“I think I’m bad at time management, but I’ve gotten good at attention management. … And so what I try to do is I try to do one project or task at a time.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #399 transcript (opens in a new tab) · 20 Dec 2019
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under focus or productivity.
- ProtocolFREE, no cost
Environment design
Change the room instead of relying on willpower
On record from 7 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it, 5 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Time blocking
Give every hour of the workday a job before the day starts
On record from 7 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Deep work blocks
Long, scheduled, distraction-free sessions on one cognitively hard task
On record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 1 recommends it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Deliberate wandering
Unplanned, inefficient exploration kept on purpose as the counterweight to efficiency
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Digital declutter
A 30-day break from optional tech, then reintroduce deliberately
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Hard thinking before lunch
Book the mentally demanding work for the morning and stop making big calls late in the day
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it
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