Staying on Task

Semi-Annual Projects.  Weekly Agenda.  Daily Task List.  All interrelated, though not all really subdivisions of the others.  My laundry or the dishes is never part of a larger plan, though on certain days it might be a daily task.  And all twelve Semi-Annual Projects require multiple steps.  So as I filter my effort from the grandiosity of what I thought would be good to work on in June or December to what I need to do today I reach a daily branch point.  I could either be working on it or I did it.  That distinction is not always clear each day, but at the reckoning when one six-month cycle moves to the next it is.

As I mark each day's aspirations each morning I put a designation at each task that I regard as finite, I can tell when I have or have not completed it.  Sometimes, but not often, I put a different designation for those which when done will not reappear in the following week's outline.  There are so few of these that I largely stopped isolating them.

I think my mind defaults to working on it, as most daily efforts are components of a grander aspiration.  It may be better to assess in a framework of I did it.  This does not always delineate easily.  I can tell when I've read a NEJM article or washed the fleishig dishes or completed the desired treadmill session.  Figuring out other things like whether I have read enough of the book I am currently reading or reached out adequately to an old friend does not have as clear an end point. But I think I did it makes for a more satisfying end of day review than I worked on it.