Year: 2023

Zeigarnik effect vs my procrastination

January 28, 2023 / Experiments, How I do things / Leave a Comment

I make commitments but don’t always deliver on time. In 2022, I ran an experiment to find out why I procrastinate.

In Jan-Feb 2022, I listed the top 2 things I wanted to get done each day and measured how often I completed them.

14 Jan. ❌ Summarise from three research reports
12 Jan. ❌ UIFactory experiment ✅ Decide if I am a (…)
11 Jan. ❌ UIFactory experiment ✅ Agree on publishing in (…)
10 Jan. ❌ Client video. ❌ UIFactory experiment
09 Jan. ❌ UIFactory experiment. ❌ Attrition email as a story
07 Jan. ❌ ZS visual
06 Jan. ❌ Release Gramex Guide. ✅ UWC application
05 Jan. ❌ Publish network cluster post. ❌ Release Gramex guide
04 Jan. ❌ Publish network cluster post. ✅ Release Gramex.
03 Jan. ✅ Publish election TDS video. ❌ Publish Network cluster post.
02 Jan. ❌ Publish election TDS video. ❌ Publish Network cluster post.
01 Jan. ❌ Publish Network cluster post. ✅ Finalize SG school.

I completed 23 / 57 things (40%). That’s one of my TOP priorities.

In Mar-Apr 2022, I started micro-journalling to find out why. Whenever I was working on something, I wrote down whenever I started, stopped, or skipped working, and why.

- Tue 01 Mar. ❌ Create React app with any one Vega chart where attributes control chart signals
  - 09:30am. Skipped. INTERRUPTED. Shobana. Cleaning bedroom
  - 09:50am. Skipped. SCHEDULED. Breakfast
  - 10:10am. Skipped. INTERRUPTED. Naveen. Call
  - 10:50am. Skipped. DISTRACTED. LinkedIn. 3b1b videos
  - 12:30pm. Skipped. SCHEDULED. Calls
  - 01:30pm. Skipped. SCHEDULED. Lunch
  - 02:00pm. Skipped. INTERRUPTED. Shobana. Cleaning, Dhyeya airtel card
  - 02:30pm. Skipped. PROCRASTINATED. Didn't feel like working
- Sat 05 Mar. ❌ Record Jio videos fully. Run productivity log alongside it.
  - 09:45am. Skipped. INTERRUPTED. Appa. Investment, music
  - 11:00am. Skipped. PROCRASTINATED. Only 2 hours to next call. Let's do it later. Plenty of time tomorrow.
  - 01:30pm. Skipped. PROCRASTINATED. Only 30 min to next call. Plenty of time tomorrow.
  - 03:45pm. Skipped. PROCRASTINATED. Half day wasted already. It’s OK to take one day off completely.
- Mon 07 Mar. ✅ Record Jio videos fully. Run productivity log alongside it.
  - 09:37am. Started. ZEIGARNIK. Was thinking about this since morning.
  - 10:00am. Stopped. INTERRUPTED. Naveen. Called
  - 10:25am. Started. ZEIGARNIK. Just continued with momentum.
  - 01:00pm. Stopped. SCHEDULED. Lunch
  - 01:30pm. Started. ZEIGARNIK. Just continued with momentum.
  - 03:15pm. Stopped. COMPLETED.

After 2 months, a few patterns emerged.

Why I skip working
  1. Distraction (50%).
    • Interesting things (22%) were the biggest. Less important things (e.g. programming, browsing/research)
    • Movies (10%) pulled me away
    • Email (8%) was fairly common
    • Organizing things (6%) like my calendar, TODOs, financials, etc.
    • Social media, interestingly, was not on my list
  2. Procrastination (25%). There were 3 kinds:
    • It’s hard, and I’m stuck
    • I don’t feel like doing it
    • I don’t have time — my next task begins sooner than I can finish
  3. Schedule (14%). I’d scheduled something else for then (usually food)
  4. Interrupted (12%). Usually by family or close colleagues
    Why I start working
    1. Zeigarnik effect (68%). I keep thinking about the problem. So even after a break, I just plunge right in
    2. Mindfulness (19%). I got started just by the act of writing the journal
    3. Distraction (9%). Sometimes, distractions work in my favor. A movie gets stuck, or someone pings about the topic, or my mind is processing the problem in the background
    4. Completed (3%). I finished the previous task and the momentum just took me to the next
    Why I stop working
    1. Schedule (47%). I have another meeting/task planned at that time
    2. Interruption (35%). This is mostly by colleagues (22%), family (8%), or hunger/thirst (6%)
    3. Exhaustion (10%). I’m just too tired to go on
    4. Distraction (8%). To do this, I need to do THAT first, and I get sucked into THAT
    What I learned
    • The Zeigarnik effect helps me start. Once I start solving something the momentum carries forward. The next best is to write down why I’m not starting it (micro-journalling).
    • To avoid procrastination, I should eliminate distractions first. Specifically, use a new Virtual Desktop, block movies, and block email & notifications.
    • To avoid schedules interrupting me, I should batch meetings even more tightly, giving me longer or more flexible blocks to work on

    Picking books to read

    January 11, 2023 / How I do things, Top 10 lists / Leave a Comment

    I add book recommendations to my GoodReads – To-read list. Then I sort by rating and pick the first one I like to read.

    In 2023, I’m reshaping my environment. Picking books I usually won’t pick. (Read The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of Not Getting What You Wanted if you want to be similarly inspired.)

    So here are 4 approaches I’m adding to my process.

    1. Algorithmic. Sort Kaggle books based on popularity, rating, and age. Pick the top 10 (or 50)
    2. Serendipitous. Go to bookstores and libraries. Pick the most popular books
    3. Award-winning. Pick from the Pulitzer, Booker, Nobel, Hugo, and other award winners
    4. Challenges. Pick from Popsugar, Book Riot, Goodreads, The 52 Book Club, and other challenges

    FYI, here are algorithmic results (for books with 100+ ratings and a 4+ average on Goodreads):

    Top rated books

    Most popular books

    Oldest books

    Books in 2022

    January 8, 2023 / How I do things, Top 10 lists / 2 Comments

    I read 52 books in 2022 (about the same as in 2021 and 2020.) Here’s what I read (best books first).

    Mind-blowing

    1. Man’s Search for Meaning. Viktor Frankl. It’s 75 years old and timeless. Who we are is independent of what’s around us. This book shows us why. This story is a great example. My best book of 2022.
    2. The Paper Menagerie. Ken Liu. I cried all the way from the beach to home. The skies joined me. It’s short. Touching. It healed a wound I can’t speak about. The most touching book of 2022.
    3. The Data Detective. Tim Harford. 10 powerful, down-to-earth rules for how to make sense of data, and avoid being fooled. I plan to incorporate every one of these into my talks. The most useful guide to working with data in 2022.
    4. The Extended Mind. Annie Murphy Paul. Explains how we think not just inside our brains, but in our bodies, in our physical environment, and in the people around us. The most effective guide to transforming my thinking in 2022.

    Life-changing

    1. Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, Homo Deus and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. Covers the past, present, and future of humanity, weaving the shared beliefs we’ve crafted — God, money, equality, property rights, happiness, and much more.
    2. Four Thousand Weeks. Oliver Burkeman. We live just 4,000 weeks. When you realize that, time management takes a new meaning. This is the most different time management book I’ve read, and I’ve started writing down stories of what I’ve done with my 4,000 weeks — each week.
    3. The Motive. Patrick Lencioni. Why do you want to stay a CEO? That’s the question this book answers, and in a sentence, it’s about doing the most important stuff that no one else will do. Not the stuff you like, or are good at.
    4. Team of Rivals. Doris Kearns Goodwin. The life of Lincoln and his cabinet. It’s extraordinary to see the path 4 eminent politicians took and the day-to-day decisions each made during the American Civil War.
    5. This is Water. David Foster Wallace. A commencement speech about the importance and power of noticing our blindspots, and making a habit of it.
    6. The Unknown Unknown. Mark Forsyth. A short, witty defense of bookshops. But it’s actually about blindspots and the power of randomness.
    7. Messy. Tim Harford. Explains how messiness is good for creativity and efficiency, with dozens of stories that prove the point.

    Interesting

    1. The Conquerer series. Conn Iggulden. The life of Genghis Khan. Factual, but interpolated with imagination. Gripping.
    2. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. Mark Manson. A direct nudge to face our fears and choose our pains (not pleasures) actively.
    3. Talking to Strangers. Malcolm Gladwell.
    4. Bad Blood. John Carreyrou. The story of Therenos. It shows how thin the line to cross is.
    5. Land of the Seven Rivers. Sanjeev Sanyal. A history of India.
    6. The Ocean of Churn. Sanjeev Sanyal. A history of the Indian ocean.
    7. On Writing Well. William Zinsser. Teaches you to write with clarity, simplicity, brevity, and humanity.
    8. Superforecasting. Philip Tetlock, Dan Gardner. Techniques to consistently forecast better.
    9. Oathbringer. Brandon Sanderson.
    10. What the Dog Saw. Malcolm Gladwell.
    11. Humble Pi. Matt Parker.
    12. David and Goliath. Malcolm Gladwell.
    13. Next in Line. Jeffrey Archer.
    14. The Bomber Mafia. Malcolm Gladwell.
    15. Emperor series. Conn Iggulden.
    16. Flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
    17. When Breath Becomes Air. Paul Kalanithi.
    18. The Lost Metal. Brandon Sanderson
    19. The Assassin’s Blade. Sarah J Maas.
    20. Skyward. Brandon Sanderson. Sunreach, ReDawn, Cytonic, Evershore

    Readable

    1. War of Lanka. Amish Tripathi.
    2. A Court of Thorns and Roses. Sarah J Maas. Part 1, 2 and 3.
    3. Asterix and the Magic Carpet.
    4. Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life. Bryan Lee O’Malley.
    5. Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Bryan Lee O’Malley.
    6. Daughter of the Deep. Rick Riordan.

    How I read books

    1. Select. I add book recommendations to my GoodReads – To-read list. Then I sort by rating and pick the first one I like to read.
    2. Listen. I listen to non-fiction audiobooks during walks.
    3. Read: I read fiction as ePUBs on my laptop or phone.
    4. Stop: I stop reading books that are boring, with no guilt. I’ve better things to do.