Learn more about productivity with this collection
How to delegate tasks efficiently
How to use technology to your advantage
How to optimize your work environment
Hard task needs restart costs
In practice, returning to a hard task in this way comes with a ‘restart’ cost: we must spend time and mental effort getting back into our task set, rather than making progress. For this reason, it is important to create time and space for hard tasks.
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MORE IDEAS ON THIS
Breaks allow keeping mental cost low and bring new ideas to consider
• Take breaks. It’s not helpful to insist on trying to get everything done at once, if it just isn’t working. It is important to take breaks from difficult work. This not only keeps the mental costs low, but might allow new concepts and structures to be considered. There is evidence that incubati...
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Get better at structuring how you solve problems
For example, a hard task such as doing a geometry proof might involve a structured process of retrieving, selecting and checking a set of geometry facts and theorems. The better that the solver knows these facts, and the more effectively they devise an efficient plan to evaluate them, the more re...
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Rubber duck problem solving with real humans
• Interact with others. Just like taking a break, interacting with others can help us conceptualize a problem in new ways. Talking to people with diverse backgrounds, perspectives and viewpoints that differ from our own can be a powerful way to break out of a rut and make progress, as well as get...
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It's ok to reconceptualize problem structure when it doesn't work
• Be open to reconceptualizing problem structure. Often, the structure we invent doesn’t work for our problem and leads to dead ends. When stuck, we must be willing to reconceptualize a problem and look for new ways to address it.
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Related collections
Other curated ideas on this topic:
Hard tasks require a task set
The brain needs ready access to the information, plans, and procedures it will be using to solve complex problems. This collective task knowledge is known as a task set. But the task set is not always immediately available.
Returning to a hard task...
Effort makes a task less attractive
Mental effort is costly, so we generally prefer to work on an simple task rather than a hard task. We procrastinate more if we expect a certain task to be hard.
This happens because the more effort a task requires, the more someone stands to gain by putting the same amount of effort in...
Five Favors For Your Future Self
- Work the hard tasks first - If you finish the easy tasks first there won't be any reason for you to push through your task list because it will seem even more difficult
- Place a buffer - Aim as high as you want but don't put too much pressure on you...
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