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Delusional Optimism and a Bonus Level!

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Delusional Optimism and a Bonus Level!

A time management tweak.

Adam Ming
Oct 7, 2022
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Delusional Optimism and a Bonus Level!

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Today I have 3 main tasks to accomplish.

Often, when planning these tasks for my day, I tend to assign the minimum amount of time it might take me to accomplish a particular task. My wife calls this trait ‘delusional optimism. Today as I look at my 3 tasks, I’m trying a different Tact.

So here are some tweaks.

  1. I’m calling my tasks Quests, so I no longer have 3 tasks (chores, work, drudgery) - I have 3 Quests (adventure, challenge, excitement). The activity is the same but the change of words is enough to change my mental approach to the work. Switching on the parts of the brain that would otherwise remain dormant.

  2. I’m adding a 50% buffer to the timer of each Quest, allowing me to work with more calm. I recognize that my initial ‘delusional optimism’ does not leave any margin for error And adjust accordingly.

  3. I’m including a 4th Quest, or Bonus Level

    1
    , it’s a fun task (Drawing Comics). The idea is if I complete any of the Main Quest, I can use any ‘leftover time to do the bonus Level Quest.

On a Quest

1

When adding a margin to quests, it’s useful to know what to do with the remaining time if a quest is completed. Otherwise, one might dilly-dally and end up using more time than is required.

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Delusional Optimism and a Bonus Level!

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Sarah Shotts
Writes Kindle Curiosity
May 18Liked by Adam Ming

Are you still doing this? I never deleted this post from last October so I would circle around to it again. I love the idea of calling tasks quests, but I would need a visual reminder of it somehow. I am doing a Walk to Mordor challenge and that kind of nerdy motivation definitely works for me. 😂

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