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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Systems for daily life
Write the fallback next to the thing it protects. Where else could I work, who do I message to say I will be late, what is the offline version of this task. Ten minutes of frustration is exactly the moment a respectable reason to stop appears, and a decision already made takes that reason off the table. Do the same for a lost charger, a dead printer, an app that logs you out on the morning it matters most.
If you are on a journey, and cannot find a scribe, something should be handed over as security (Quran 2:283). The fallback is named in advance, as part of the arrangement rather than as a scramble once it fails.
البقرة
۞وَإِن كُنتُمۡ عَلَىٰ سَفَرࣲ وَلَمۡ تَجِدُواْ كَاتِبࣰ ا فَرِهَٰنࣱ مَّقۡبُوضَةࣱۖ فَإِنۡ أَمِنَ بَعۡضُكُم بَعۡضࣰ ا فَلۡيُؤَدِّ ٱلَّذِي ٱؤۡتُمِنَ أَمَٰنَتَهُۥ وَلۡيَتَّقِ ٱللَّهَ رَبَّهُۥۗ وَلَا تَكۡتُمُواْ ٱلشَّهَٰدَةَۚ وَمَن يَكۡتُمۡهَا فَإِنَّهُۥٓ ءَاثِمࣱ قَلۡبُهُۥۗ وَٱللَّهُ بِمَا تَعۡمَلُونَ عَلِيمࣱ
If you are on a journey, and cannot find a scribe, something should be handed over as security, but if you decide to trust one another, then let the one who is trusted fulfil his trust; let him be mindful of God, his Lord. Do not conceal evidence: anyone who does so has a sinful heart, and God is fully aware of everything you do
Qur’an 2:283read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A randomised trial handed people a written sheet pairing each obstacle they expected with a response worked out in advance, and physical activity rose in a low income group. That is the same device as the one described here, decided while calm and written down. It was a single trial in a different domain, so the method has support without any promise that it will carry every obstacle you write on your sheet.
Armitage CJ, Arden MA. (2010). A volitional help sheet to increase physical activity in people with low socioeconomic status: A randomised exploratory trial.. Psychology & health doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
A breakdown you have already answered costs ten minutes, and one you have not answered can take the whole day with it.
Where there is a choice, take the class that meets at a fixed hour with other people in the room. Watch it whenever you like turns into never watched more often than anyone admits.
There is a corner of the week that is neither urgent nor important, and it is where avoiding lives. The real cost is rarely the lost hours. It is what you end up saying to yourself afterwards.
When a decision is looming, write the options out rather than talking them through. A test is coming: do nothing, make a revision timetable, ask for extra help. Three lines on paper.