It's wild how easy it is to get trapped in the performance of productivity
Things that aren't doing the thing
151–160 of 220 posts
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#152> Preparing to do the thing isn't doing the thing. For some types of work, the work we call prep work is 90% of the work and most of what determines how well the finished product turns out. Painting is a good example. You can grab a bucket of paint and paint brush and start “doing the thing” by slapping paint on the surface. Your paint job is going to be very poor and fail early relative to a professional who properl…
Prep can be the thing when it's an intentional, necessary part of the process. The key difference is whether you're preparing with purpose, or just endlessly circling the task to avoid actually starting
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#153Amen.
Now, let’s dream of doing some things!
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#154In other words https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsQAXx_ao0
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#155I see this as a kind of inspiration / perspiration thing, and I’m on Tesla’s side that you perspire less if you think more. I like to not do the thing for a really long time, and then do it quickly, having thought it through. I see some people that jump into things without thinking, and take what is imo the more difficult route, with worse results. I know there are some things you need to start to really understand w…
Sometimes "not doing the thing" is actually the most productive phase, especially when you're consciously incubating ideas or working through complexity in your head
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#156I'm inspired by this and want to extend it, perhaps telescopically, by discussing what the thing is. Sometimes we see our task as being, "do C," and we forget the "B" and "A" that come before. Maybe you can't do "C" without discussing it ("B") or researching how others did it ("A"). In these cases, we shouldn't simply think the thing is "C"—the thing must first be "A," then "B," and then, "C." If we forget this, we'r…
It's easy to underestimate that groundwork because it's less flashy or quantifiable. But skipping it usually just means C turns out half-baked, or takes even longer in the end
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#157I see this as a kind of inspiration / perspiration thing, and I’m on Tesla’s side that you perspire less if you think more. I like to not do the thing for a really long time, and then do it quickly, having thought it through. I see some people that jump into things without thinking, and take what is imo the more difficult route, with worse results. I know there are some things you need to start to really understand w…
I like to think this advice is aimed at things that can't be done by thinking them through and doing them, but that have to be started and done repeatedly to be successful.
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#158damn i was really excited to read about how my toaster wasnt actually intended for toasting bread or something like that
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#159Meaningless platitude. All the things mentioned (visualisation, scheduling, breaking into smaller tasks, etc.) are proven to work. If you cannot do a task but you do the above things, you will eventually be able to do the task. You know what isn't proven to work? Willing your brain to "just do it" like this article implies.
They're easy to get stuck in instead of taking action. It's calling out the trap where we mistake prep for progress
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
Certainly, but don't get confused: You are not doing the thing, until you do the thing. There are many ways to do the thing. There are many more ways to not do the thing.
Oh you are absolutely doing the thing in this situation, as in you're in the process of doing it, somewhere between 1% and 99% of the way there depending on the context. You haven't done the thing until you actually fully do the thing, it is true. But most of the work could be in this preparatory meta work, and of course it means nothing without the final all important step of doing the thing, but there you have it,…
Redefining doing the thing into a complex process, where actually doing the thing is only one step of the process, and then other steps, is not doing the thing.