Loading practices
Loading practices
Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Structure and routine
An undated task has nothing to make it happen. It sits there competing with whatever is loud right now and loses every time. Giving it a day, a start and a length turns it into an appointment with yourself, and it lets you find out early whether the week can really hold it. Some jobs will need two or three of these, which is far better discovered on Monday than on Friday.
Perform the regular prayers in the period from the time the sun is past its zenith till the darkness of the night (Quran 17:78). A window with edges is given, rather than a vague intention to get round to it.
الإسراء
أَقِمِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ لِدُلُوكِ ٱلشَّمۡسِ إِلَىٰ غَسَقِ ٱلَّيۡلِ وَقُرۡءَانَ ٱلۡفَجۡرِۖ إِنَّ قُرۡءَانَ ٱلۡفَجۡرِ كَانَ مَشۡهُودࣰ ا
So perform the regular prayers in the period from the time the sun is past its zenith till the darkness of the night, and [recite] the Quran at dawn- dawn recitation is always witnessed––
Qur’an 17:78read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A randomised trial with 557 young adults compared a plan tying a specific situation to a specific action against a general intention to eat better, and the tied version did more for daily intake. That is the mechanic behind putting a start time on a task. It tested eating rather than reports, and effects in this literature are usually modest.
Chapman J, Armitage CJ, Norman P. (2009). Comparing implementation intention interventions in relation to young adults' intake of fruit and vegetables.. Psychology & health doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
A task with a time attached has something to set it off, and a task without one has nothing.
The benefit comes from how often you touch it. Writing something in is a rehearsal, looking it up is a reminder, and by the time the day arrives you have met it so many times that nothing takes you by surprise.
Once tasks sit in the week rather than on a list, you can see that Thursday has no room left. Saying no gets much easier when the crowding is in front of your eyes instead of somewhere in your head.
Plenty of people manage without any system at all. They tend to manage on adrenaline, late nights and a low hum of dread, which is a high price for an outcome that looks fine from outside.