I hate inefficiencies. I can understand that waste or misallocation of resources is almost inevitable when solving extremely complex problems, that maybe require coordination among humans, or do not posses an a priori fully deterministic solution path. This still bothers me on some level, but I tend to stomach it because it is often not immediate or trivial to come up with a better solution¹. However, the inefficiencies that truly frustrate me are simple, individual and provably suboptimal solutions and/or their implementations. 

I happen to not only have a particular animosity against this type of inefficiencies, but I am also “lucky” enough to spot them with quite high accuracy. Some simple symptoms that I think are relatable to most people manifest as a feeling of disappointment with how much I achieved in a day, or how I handled a certain interaction, or how I ended up in a stressful situation. I guess it comes as news to literally no one when I say experiencing this sucks.

Therefore, over time I tried to build up a system to reduce and ameliorate the inefficiencies from my own personal life. The following list of “solutions” feels like common sense to me, and I think most people would agree that it does not take a genius to come up with it. I find that often knowing what the right thing to do is the easy part, and actually doing it is the challenging bit. I will try to provide motivation and some of my personal suggestions on a potential framework to decide on what the right thing to do is and how to go about doing it.

Pre “work day”

Before any work gets done, I spend roughly 10 minutes prioritizing my tasks, breaking my calendar in 30-120 minutes slots with clear goals². I make sure to leave around 2-3 hours of unassigned time to be used for issues that may come up during the day or to be used as extension for issues that took longer than I expected.

Note: This may sound silly at first, but I not only found it to be an extremely useful practice in itself, but also a very good way to signal to my brain that it is time to start working.

During “work day”

This is the part where I follow the schedule. Clearly, the implementation part is the main challenge here, so check out the next section and the end of the post discussion.

During “work day” (meta)

As much as this sucks, we all have bad days. For me, they usually manifest as times when my brain refuses to complete intellectually challenging work. I keep a running list³ with deadlines of small braindead tasks I need to eventually do, and I religiously tackle them in deadline order. This way, I not only experience a (modest) sense of achievement, but I also maximize good days by adding this type of miscellaneous tasks to the list knowing they will get handled.

This is not an original idea⁴, but I find stacking habits to be a very good way to ensure I effortlessly flow between consecutive tasks. For example, I try to do the most difficult work by 2 pm, and hit the gym immediately after.

The last point here touches on doubly utilizing time. I mean, time is very much so finite, so the second best thing to generating more of it is using it to tackle multiple issues simultaneously. For example, I always listen to FT News Briefing on my way to the gym, I always read Money Stuff⁵ when I am commuting on the subway, or I listen to a podcast when I cook, or call a friend to catch up when I am walking home.

Post “work day”

This is reflection time. Similarly to pre “work day”, I spend 10 minutes going over what I have achieved, think of ways I could have done things better, and make sure I did not drop any important task⁶.

Note: This may sound silly at first, but I not only found it to be an extremely useful practice in itself, but also a very good way to signal to my brain that it is time to stop working. It is also a good time to feel proud of what you have achieved or forgive yourself for not being the best, and making sure you start fresh tomorrow.

Post post “work day”

Dunno man, you’re probably exhausted. Go have some fun, see some friends, read a book or get an early night.

Implementation

Ok, so I promised I will provide some personal take on how to best implement these ideas. And I know I said that we all know what the right thing to do is, and that the implementation is the hard part. I actually think that it is both extremely hard and extremely easy at the same time, mostly depending on how you look at it. The extremely easy view is this:

Just do it. 

Seriously. I mean Nike really got this one right. I am sure some people will not like reading this and probably they have some objection that inevitably starts with the word “but”. Look, I get it. It feels hard to actually do it. But let me share how my 7 year old self thought about this. Who knows, maybe sometimes being a bit simple and naive helps?

“So, I know what I have to do, and I know why I have to do it, and if I do it, I will get to a place I presumably want to be at?”

“It logically follows I should do it!!!”

Ok, sure, great logic there. To be honest, I do feel like saying “but, blah blah” quite often myself. However, every time this happens, I focus solely on why I know what the right thing to do is until  my “but blah blah” part of the brain gives up and allows me to go to work. (Trust me, with practice, it should really not take longer than 5 seconds – the “but blah blah” part of your brain will eventually learn that it stands no chance).

Footnotes

1. there can be an argument that every complex thing is a collection of small simple things, and maybe there is some merit to that line of thinking.
2. I tend to prefer titling it “work on X” rather than “get X done”. This not only allows me to stay true to the schedule throughout the day, but it also prevents experiencing a sense of failure if X does not get done. I admit that sometimes certain things need to get done, and the approach changes slightly for those cases.
3. It’s really a CSV. As of tasks, it can be anything from cleaning the house to scheduling doctor appointments.
4. See Atomic Habits by James Clear.
5. I mean Matt Levine not only has interesting takes, but he is essentially the funniest finance related person I know of.
6. If I drop some important task, I can easily ensure it gets done the next day because of my pre “work day” routine.