It’s halfway through summer. With all the long days, summer feels like it is lazy. I am not so good at lazy and I woke up this morning ready to start making plans.<\/p>\n
Whenever I make a plan, the goal is to set up a system so that I don\u2019t’ have to think about it. Thinking is strong medicine; it’s best to keep it in reserve.<\/p>\n
I recently read Thinking, Fast and Slow <\/em>by Daniel Kahneman. He names two systems for thinking, one fast and one slow. The slow one is the one I am talking about keeping in reserve.<\/p>\n The fast one is the one I want to use all the time. It’s a kind of thinking that’s barely thinking–practically a reflex. Some of the basics are things like “Am I thirsty?”<\/p>\n These are things that a baby knows.<\/p>\n For more complicated kind of thinking, I have to set up a structure to make it easy. And that takes work.<\/p>\n A good example is learning the multiplication tables. Seven times nine requires a lot of thought, until I make a point (as a school child) of memorizing the multiplication tables. Once I took the time and effort to put all that information in my easily retrievable memory, it was easy.<\/p>\n The memorization was hard, but after that it was easy.<\/p>\n I have found that many things work that way. If I put in the time and practice for stuff I do–or stuff I PLAN to do–repeatedly, it will save effort.<\/p>\n In the past few years, I have started several new jobs. Since these jobs rely on me to use my brain, for every single new job I have had to learn a set of documents, files processes and systems that are necessary to do the work.<\/p>\n And then there are the parts of the job for which there are no processes or systems. Those parts I have to make up as I go along. Those are the ones that require gathering the information, determining what’s relevant, making a decision and taking an action.<\/p>\n When I am new in a job, I have to think about every decision and action I take. There are a very few things I am sure of–username and password are often the first.<\/p>\n Then I have to go through and figure out the systems and processes for each thing. It takes several months before I’m sure of which ones have a system and which ones are in the make-it-up bucket.<\/p>\n Every workplace has gaps. If those gaps are actions that need to be repeated, then I make up my own system, my own folder and files. Once I have made that decision, then I don’t have to think about it anymore. I just process it and leave my mind free for the situations I don’t<\/em> have an answer for.<\/p>\n My job is a game I play, a game in which someone else creates the rules. I have to play by the rules or I don’t play anymore. And the rules do change.<\/p>\n I am also allowed to make up my own game. And that is what I do when I come up with a personal project.<\/p>\n If I am serious about making my plans a reality, I have to create a system and a process–a schedule if possible–to let that plan be easy. If I have to think too hard, I will very likely never do it.<\/p>\n That kind of thinking takes effort. It’s hard, and ponderous, and it is way more accurate. That’s the slow thinking Kahneman talks about in the book.<\/p>\n That’s why I like to find a patch of free time, to think about what I want to do, figure out the outcome and the steps it will take to do it. Take it slow, think it through and set it up so that I don’t have to do it again. At least, not for a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s halfway through summer. With all the long days, summer feels like it is lazy. I am not so good at lazy and I woke up this morning ready to start making plans. Whenever I make a plan, the goal … Continue reading