On Paralysis and Choosing Tasks at Random

Gustav at the Fiction-Writing Directorate offers this useful-and-weirdly-entertaining post: "The Phrenologist's Apprentice: The Directorate Guide to Getting Enough Done," which John Burridge kindly pointed out in comments to a recent post of mine.

The pitfall of the article above is the danger of getting the wrong things done, as described in the post John replied to ("When Being Productive is Just Another Way to Procrastinate"), but it still makes a fair point. Gustav offers this discussion of the pitfall:

"Absurd!" Frederick cried. "Why, if I picked tasks at random—"

"—With synchronicity," I corrected.

"With synchronicity," he continued, "how could I ensure that important tasks would get done?"

"I understand your skepticism," I said. "But it seems to me that you spend all your time weeping and paralyzed, so nothing is getting done, important or otherwise. Is that not true?"

He nodded, ashamed.

"This way, you will achieve at least a modicum of success. However, I suspect you will be pleasantly surprised at how often this method presents you with precisely the right task. Synchronicity, lad."