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Expressive Writing Cools Brain on Stressful Tasks

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Re: Expressive Writing Cools Brain on Stressful Tasks

#3
post #2

This study gives credence to the GTD's book claim that putting all of your tasks in an "inbox" reduces stress, which was the only worthwhile insight I got from it.

What about the two-minute rule for processing said inbox? Or defining projects as TODO's that require more than one step to complete? The GTD book has been a gold mine for me.

Re: Expressive Writing Cools Brain on Stressful Tasks

#4
post #2

This study gives credence to the GTD's book claim that putting all of your tasks in an "inbox" reduces stress, which was the only worthwhile insight I got from it.

Speaking of GTD - if you found the book impossible to read, consider watching this video version: https://www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-tutorials/Getting-Thin...

Re: Expressive Writing Cools Brain on Stressful Tasks

#7
I have also found that it helps to put swear-words in the commit messages when I'm struggeling a lot with something.

Once I get to that point I will stop working on that specific problem until the next day, but swearing about it in the commit message helps me not think about it anymore and also when I come back to it the next day I can see from the commit what I was struggeling with.

Obviously only do this for repositories that you aren't sharing with anyone.

You could also do it in a shared repo if you don't push the commits and you squash them first. Personally I'm not a squash kind of person and I'd also fear that I pushed without remembering to squash even if I really were planning on squashing.

Re: Expressive Writing Cools Brain on Stressful Tasks

#8

I have also found that it helps to put swear-words in the commit messages when I'm struggeling a lot with something. Once I get to that point I will stop working on that specific problem until the next day, but swearing about it in the commit message helps me not think about it anymore and also when I come back to it the next day I can see from the commit what I was struggeling with. Obviously only do this for reposi…

See: [1]

[1] http://www.commitlogsfromlastnight.com/

Re: Expressive Writing Cools Brain on Stressful Tasks

#9
post #6

Is it writing did the trick, or any verbalization will do? Maybe all you need is to spend 8 minutes on thinking about task?

I think the point is to externalize the concerns. If you only think about them, they are still "on your mind", whereas if you write them down, they are in a conceptual external storage and you can stop thinking about them.
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