So people have probably noticed that replies for Kalina, Verin and Hope have been coming in slow. That's because of university. I handed in my dissertation last week and will be handing in three more essays on Friday - and then I'm free!! (For a little bit before the last essay of my undergrad degree, and then exams...) But I'm almost there, guys! Anyway, when it comes to writing essays and posts, I have a simple formula which helps me to decide which piece of work I am going to do next. It's all about time, enjoyment and tiredness, and it means that I will get through as many pieces of work/posts as efficiently as humanly possible. Because.. we all know that some posts are more enjoyable/easier to write than others, and this helps me (and might help you) sift through what to do next... You have a series of projects to complete. You aren’t certain exactly when you will get tired but you know you will get tired eventually. Each of the projects has an expected effort level ‘E’ and an expected reward level ‘R’. ‘Effort’ is anything which makes the project hard to complete, be it time, relative lack of enjoyment or preparation time. ‘Reward’ is the financial, emotional etc success one gets from completing the task. E.g: Paying your monthly phone bill is effortful because you have to spend money and time doing but the reward is that you get to fulfil your contract and keep using your phone for one more month. E.g. 2: Cooking a meal for yourself is more effortful than getting in take-out (if you find cooking expensive or time consuming like most students) but the reward for a cooked meal is generally greater than a take-out (unless that’s some damn fine take-out or you just plain suck at cooking) Anyway, if you compute the reward/effort ratio for a group of tasks you have to complete. I.e. you calculate/estimate “R/E” for each of your unopened emails and then rank them in descending order of these “R/E” values and then work on these projects solidly until you get tired… guess what? You’ll have done the most rewarding amount of work possible in that time. Maths. Credit to my PhD Maths buddy for telling me about this nifty little formula. So if I prioritise threads, I'm really sorry, and I will get to you eventually, but it's helping me to keep my motivation going! |