Front-Loading
March 15, 2023
Current location: Milwaukee, WI, USA
Reading: Secondhand by Adam Minter
Listening: Over by CHVRCHES(if you have a moment, reply with your own 3-item status via email or in the comments)
Front-Loading
As a general rule, if there's something vital you need to get done, it helps to shift it forward to the morning.
Everyone's circadian rhythm is different and our rhythms change over the course of our lives (on average nudging us from night owls into early birds as we age), but the benefits of front-loading tasks are derived more from the ease of establishing habits and rhythms soon after waking up than the morning always being the most energetically opportune time to accomplish things.
By getting important things out of the way first thing, we needn't worry about them throughout the rest of the day. They don't hang over everything else we try to do, which allows us to better focus on those other things (no continuous partial attention).
Closing a loop early also grants us a minor sense of victory that can be motivating and energizing, allowing us to more breezily shift into other tasks—though it can also make it easier to relax and enjoy time off, because we did the thing and now we can more convincingly justify doing nothing.
Not all tasks and responsibilities offer a satisfying endpoint: many will be portions of larger undertakings, and checking a portion of a project off our to-do list doesn't generally feel as holistically satisfying as handling the whole of a project.
This is a perceptual distinction—finishing a meaningful chunk of something is valuable, too—but it can still influence how we feel, post-accomplishment.
I find that I can sometimes tweak this tendency by reorganizing portions of projects into their own, mini-projects, but that won't always be possible. In such cases, it can sometimes be useful to start the day with something smaller—something with a well-defined endpoint—before rolling into an endpoint-less undertaking (even something as simple as washing the dishes, tidying up your work area, or doing prep-work for a meal can serve this purpose, I find).
There are several other "morning" opportunities throughout the day, too, in the sense that there are milestones we can use to make habits easier to establish, similar to how we might tether rituals to the process of getting up out of bed and ready for the day, or in the sense that they're relate to some kind of energetic ebb or flow.
On that latter point: our personal energetic cartographies vary substantially, but the general idea is to identify when you usually feel most upbeat and productive and creative in a given day, and to then distribute the things you need and want to do appropriately.
For me, mornings are great for both creative work and the making of things (even tedious things), and I can generally work straight on through from waking till lunchtime (I don't generally eat breakfast) with the same level of focus and effectiveness.
My afternoons, I find, are better for absorbing new knowledge and curation-related work: soaking up information and rearranging/sharing that information in various ways.
I have a few hours in the late-afternoon and early-evening when I can jump back aboard the creativity train (though it's a less-ideal moment for the sort of extended, tedious tasks I can knock out effortlessly in the morning), and in the evening I mostly read longer works and fiddle around with things that aren't directly creation-related.
This is a rough outline of how I segment my day based on past experience and my attempts to understand how I tend to feel and optimally operate.
It varies a lot based on who I'm with, what I'm working on, the other things going on in my life, what I've eaten (and when), and how I slept the night before. It also changes over time (and will almost certainly continue to do so).
Again, this'll also vary a lot from person to person: your map will look somewhat or substantially different from my map.
Also worth noting is that developing the willpower to work on things even when you're not feeling primed to do so is a valuable investment. There'll be moments when you can't carve up your schedule the way you'd prefer, or when you're simply not feeling up for anything—but you still need or want to get something out the door.
Identifying which elements of your day are firm foundations for habits, though, which portions are latently suitable for which sorts of work (or non-work activity), and how you might consequently better distribute the things you'd like to get done, can reduce the frustration you might otherwise feel when attempting to tackle something you know you can do, but which seems (for whatever reason) untackleable in the moment.
It can also make it more likely that you'll function more efficiently and effectively on an average day.
If you found value in this essay, consider buying me a coffee or becoming a paid subscriber :)
My Work, Elsewhere
Aspiring Generalist / Brain Lenses (podcast) / Climate Happenings / Let’s Know Things (podcast) / Never Not Curious / Notes On the News / One Sentence News (podcast) / You Probably Don’t Need
Might I suggest reading:
Interesting & Useful
“Seven Nation Army by White Stripes played by seven electric devices. The devices are two electric toothbrushes, two credit card machines, two typewriters, and one steam iron. There is also one credit card machine that takes care of the dance moves of the solo toothbrush.”
Visualizing Rivers and Floodplains with USGS Data
“The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is REALLY close to an incredible goal: by 2023 it aims to have a super detailed 3D scan of every square mile of United State territory…and it has built some powerful tools for the public to download and explore this data.”
Every Country’s Favorite Children’s Toy in 2022
“Last year, our clever elves at TheToyZone analyzed Google Search volumes to track down the exact toy that each country had searched for the most online in 2021. We’ve crunched the numbers again this year to map the most uniquely popular toy in 161 countries in 2022.”
Outro
It’s Spring Break, so I’m not driving my girlfriend to and from her teaching job in Beloit, which has freed up two days of my week.
It’s amazing how quickly we can adjust to new schedules; it’s only been a few months since this twice-weekly roadtrip/commute began, but I’ve already adjusted my work schedule, daily rhythms, and habits accordingly. I didn’t really know what to do with myself yesterday, and I suspect I’ll feel something of the same tomorrow.
Which is good in the sense that it won’t be a big shock to jump back into that driving schedule next week, but less-good in the sense that I’d prefer to make better use of this liberated time!
But my brain and body are just stunned to not be in transit or lingering around a college campus all day, I think, and I’ll almost certainly go through the same shock when the semester ends in May, and my schedule sprawls back out to encompass those extra days that are currently a lot less utilizable.
What have you been up to recently? What’s on your mind? What’re you working on, working toward, working out?
Drop me an email and tell me what’s up, or leave a comment if you’d like to share with everyone—I respond to every message I receive and would love to hear from you :)
You can also send me a letter, postcard, or some other physical communication if you’d prefer:
Colin Wright
PO Box 11442
Milwaukee, WI 53211
Of course, you can also communicate via the usual methods: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or list of 15th century names for all manners of hounds.