Kourosh Dini's Blog, page 8

Why Doesn’t AI Tell Me What to Do Already?

Aren’t we all perfectly on top of our tasks and lists by now?

Hasn’t technology fixed it all already?

It hasn’t? Why not?

I thought we’ve gotten pretty good with this whole AI-Internet-Computer thingy.

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When we come home at the end of the day, things only partially done, morning ambitions laughably untouched, one more list can make us scream.

The trouble isn’t that we haven’t mastered the technology.

It’s that these lists and tasks are a part of us.

Ideas and emotions co...

Clock Time vs Self Time

How long will this take? Should I start it now?

Tick tock, tick tock, …

When will it begin? When will I be done?

Tick tock, tick tock, …

A clock’s markers are vital to synchronizing the machinations of meetings amongst us.

But our decisions and actions live in the moment–the mornings, the evenings, and the wee hours of the night.

Clock time isn’t the only time. In fact, I’m not sure it’s time at all.

Seconds, minutes, hours–these are only measures.

Experience is where we more truly find its flow...

“Just in Time” Productivity

“I need to finish that report by Monday.”

“Ugh, and there’s that pile of laundry.”

“But I really want to play that new board game that just came in the mail.”

Multiple demands and wants, internal or external, can strike at any time.

In such moments, I find that anchoring myself helps me engage with greater reliability, avoid rabbit trails, and get to the things I want.

When I teach the process, I’m often asked:

“How often do you do this?”

The answer is “as often as I I feel like”. That might be ...

The Good Work of Consolidation (plus an example in DEVONthink)

“I’ve got a neat idea!”

Diving in when inspiration strikes can be such fun.

Write, do, act,… things are moving.

But somewhere along the way, initial inspirations spent, we can stumble into:

“Ugh, now I have work to do…”

Was it “novelty” lost? What’s going on?

An Example in Writing

Let’s look at an example. I have a sudden idea about a better way to build an Honor Guide, a method of orchestrating our days to work at our own natural pace.

I jot down my thoughts as soon as I’m free, avoiding lookin...

The Visit and the Waves of Focus

Many people feel that they have to “force” themselves to work. Examples include:

Waiting for deadlines to pressure themselvesFaking deadlinesHoping for a muse or interest to strike before approachingShaming yourself with past failures in hopes you’d feel bad enough to work,the ever unreliable “I just need to start!”and more…

To break free from a force-based method of work may not be simple, but the start can be. Adjusting a ship’s course by only a few degrees, given time, can lead you to...

When There’s No Time to Read Books

Every book is an entire world, waiting to be explored.

My father had a large library. Many of the books were inherited from a friend. That friend had told him that when he was younger, he would worry:

“I rarely have the time to read these. When I find the time, will I be too old to see the words?”

The answer became “yes”. He did grow too old to read them and so gifted them to my father.

Funny enough, my father said the same thing. And once again, it came true.

But for him, it wasn’t for the lack...

“I just don’t wanna” and the Power of a Visit

If you haven’t caught it already, I had the pleasure and opportunity to write about the Force vs Visit approach to work that I’ve been talking a lot about lately as a guest blogger on Neurodivergent Insights.

​“I just don’t wanna” and the Power of a Visit

The Neurodivergent Insights blog, run by Dr. Megan Ann Neff, is chock-full of ideas about ADHD, autism, their intersection, and much more.

The post “I just don’t wanna” and the Power of a Visit appeared first on Kourosh Dini.

A Fever of Lists

When a list overwhelms, you might think the trouble is the work itself. But that’s not always the case.

On my first days as a resident physician, I worked on the inpatient medical floor. It was a terribly overwhelming experience. Something goes wrong somewhere, all eyes turn to you, and it doesn’t matter that you did well on some book exam. Now, it’s real.

A patient of mine spiked a fever.

The impulse, even encouraged my some of the staff, was to give acetaminophen. Doing so would likely decreas...

One Thing, Then the Next

I’ll do this. Now the next thing. Ok. What’s going on with email… Gotta respond here. But I need this first…

Some days there’s no room for air. You dive in and just go. Bopping from one thing to the next with an intuitive sense of what the next most important thing is, you just do it.

It’s a reactive mode that seems to move things forward. And sometimes things truly do move forward.

But there’s a thin line. An extra text, email, call, message, or a passerby who says, “Hey, do you got a minute?” ...

Searching for A Key to Meaningful Productivity

The Seductive Power of Tools

 

Tools are powerful. They help us bring our visions to reality.

Turn a key, and a lock opens. Press play on a music app, and lovely noises come out. Ask an AI to write something, and words flow onto the screen.

As I write now with this powerful computer at hand, I marvel at humanity’s staggering ability to shape their environment, tools ever-evolving over time…

But their power can lull us into to the belief that they will do our internal work for us.

Consider those ...