Loading practices
Loading practices
Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Bringing the future closer
Pick the dates while you are writing the plan, not later when you happen to remember. Each one turns a single verdict at the end into several small corrections along the way. If others are involved, tell them the dates, because a checkpoint somebody else is expecting is far more likely to survive a busy week.
'We shall be sure to guide to Our ways those who strive hard for Our cause' (Quran 29:69). Guidance is promised during the striving, not held back until the end of it.
العنكبوت
وَٱلَّذِينَ جَٰهَدُواْ فِينَا لَنَهۡدِيَنَّهُمۡ سُبُلَنَاۚ وَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَمَعَ ٱلۡمُحۡسِنِينَ
But We shall be sure to guide to Our ways those who strive hard for Our cause: God is with those who do good
Qur’an 29:69read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
In a study of 132 children, richer future time perception and more detailed imagining of future events went with a greater ability to wait for a real reward. It is a correlation, in children, so it proves nothing about running projects. It does fit the general idea that what you can hold out for depends on how clearly you see ahead, and a checkpoint next week is easier to see than a deadline in April.
Burns P, O'Connor PA, Atance C, McCormack T. (2021). More Later: Delay of Gratification and Thought About the Future in Children.. Child development doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Drift you notice early is drift you can still correct.
Before you hand it over, read the original request again. Not your memory of it. The actual words.
Smoking sends its bill decades later. Homework skipped at fourteen lands at university applications. January's receipt matters in April of the following year. The few seconds of relief are always right here.
Every interruption charges you twice. There is the chance you never come back to the work at all, and there is the effort it takes to come back when you do.