We can get better at decisionmaking by training our judgment, can we not?
One aspect of better judgment is knowing when to engage in hard work and when to back off and let the answers come. We could call this latter way of doing things soft work.
If you're sitting and trying to solve a difficult problem, would you benefit from more focus and concentration on the matter at hand, or would you benefit from taking a walk or shower?
This seems to be a real key to productivity. If your mind is sharp but doesn't have the problemspace loaded, you'd do well to do some hard work, tear into the problem and get the gears of your mind turning.
Then, once it's loaded firmly in your head but progress isn't coming, it might be a good time to take a shower, go for a walk, go for a run, go buy groceries, cook, or whatever.
I'm convinced that a lot of people "waste" -- or at least, underuse -- their time in the shower, their time shopping, and their time cooking.
I've noticed that I'm better off almost never showering the very first moment of the day. I always want to have something important and valuable on my mind when I go into the shower, so that the gears will work subconsciously on it.
I don't go into the shower saying, "I'm going to solve this problem." Often, I don't think at all. And yet, the answers come.
But if I just stumble groggily into the shower, it's like a waste of a shower.
Fitness likewise serves as a good break, and you probably get double-duty on your fitness time if you do as a break from hard work.
The flipside is true, too -- too much hard work when you're banging your head against the wall can sometimes be counterproductive, making you hate and dread the thing that you're unable to make traction on.
Meanwhile, you probably have a whole host of chores that need to get done. I'm certainly as guilty as anyone else of neglecting to go grocery shopping to work on difficult problems, but I'm gradually coming to see that as folly. Burn hard -- do some very hard work to start the day -- and once that first lull kicks in, do fitness, shower... come back, get another burst of hard work if there's answers there, then go buy groceries, cook something...
We make better decisions by training our judgment. Here's one question to start sharpening that decisionmaking: Does this situation call for more intensity of hard work, or backing off and working softly?
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