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Jan. 21st, 2011 12:35 pmYou know, I'm genuinely not sure how I feel about this hourglass.
Actually that's not true, I love the hourglass itself, it's just the right size and it has a nice weight, and it's aesthetically pleasing, the proportions are good. But I've been using it to train myself out of some of the running-around I do, and I'm perplexed by what's happening.
The hourglass is actually a fifteen-minute timer. So I make a list of activities each morning and then spend fifteen minutes on each, rotating through: "email" "outside reading" "drywork" "writing", et cetera. Some tasks don't get finished within fifteen minutes -- I didn't realise how much "outside reading" (websites, news, research) I do. Other activities either don't last fifteen minutes (Sudoku: 10 minutes for a hard puzzle) or I don't want them to because it'll mean doing something I don't want to do. That's the point, of course, the timer makes me do it.
Thing is, it also makes me move from task to task when time's up, and I'm not sure if that's teaching me to multitask and be calm when something isn't Immediately Done or teaching me an even shorter attention span than I have now. Mind you, it does get me off the computer for fifteen minutes of every hour -- that's "drywork", when I'm cleaning my desk or going through papers or anything, basically, that's not computer oriented.
I don't think drywork can possibly last. My desk can only get so clean...
Actually that's not true, I love the hourglass itself, it's just the right size and it has a nice weight, and it's aesthetically pleasing, the proportions are good. But I've been using it to train myself out of some of the running-around I do, and I'm perplexed by what's happening.
The hourglass is actually a fifteen-minute timer. So I make a list of activities each morning and then spend fifteen minutes on each, rotating through: "email" "outside reading" "drywork" "writing", et cetera. Some tasks don't get finished within fifteen minutes -- I didn't realise how much "outside reading" (websites, news, research) I do. Other activities either don't last fifteen minutes (Sudoku: 10 minutes for a hard puzzle) or I don't want them to because it'll mean doing something I don't want to do. That's the point, of course, the timer makes me do it.
Thing is, it also makes me move from task to task when time's up, and I'm not sure if that's teaching me to multitask and be calm when something isn't Immediately Done or teaching me an even shorter attention span than I have now. Mind you, it does get me off the computer for fifteen minutes of every hour -- that's "drywork", when I'm cleaning my desk or going through papers or anything, basically, that's not computer oriented.
I don't think drywork can possibly last. My desk can only get so clean...
