Rhythms

The next time your internal rhythm defocuses you on your current activity ask yourself, 1) what type of task am I doing currently, and 2) have I been doing too much of that same type of task recently? I think you will be surprised. This is the reason that we do not want to do hundreds of routine e-mails at a single sitting; and conversely it is the same reason we have that urge to break away from deep extended problem solving or planning activities, and we actually want to do e-mails for immediate gratification. This is the way we self-regulate our internal task rhythms and feedback/gratification systems. The problem arises when we try to vary the list of activities without trying to vary the task types. We often only change tasks without changing task types, which fails to provide the feedback for improved motivation and satisfaction that our internal rhythm is telling us to seek. By modifying our work environment to align with our Task Quotient on a regular monthly, weekly, daily basis, we can raise our level of motivation and satisfaction. It may not even be necessary to change what we do, but just change the sequence and length of time we do each type of task.