One funky monkey. |
As I've described before, tasks that get us into the zone are characterized by well-defined goals, immediate feedback, and reasonable challenge. These are broad requirements that almost any activity can meet with a little creativity. To extend this thinking, if individual tasks can produce flow, why can't the task of accomplishing all our tasks do the same?
Today, let's approach our to-do list with the goal of getting in the zone for the whole workday. In order for this to happen though, we need to tweak our list to make things flow a bit better.
Liquid List
Task: Modify your to-do list to be compatible with the principles of Flow.
Info: You want your each item on your to-do list to be a well-defined task that provides a reasonable level of challenge. What does this mean? If the first item on your to-do list is: "Be awesome." That probably isn't going to get you into the zone. Break the task up into individual tasks that each provide a nice, self-contained flow activity. So, instead of "Be awesome" you could write 1. "Read chapter one of 'Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience'", 2. "Complete the Daily Mind Game at The Happy Homunculus.", 3. "Brainstorm next steps to being awesome". Each one of those tasks is well-defined, provides the immediate sense of progress, and is self-correcting in terms of level of challenge. Rewrite your whole to-do list with these requirements in mind. Then start working!
Goal: Make it a game: 1 Metacognition Point per completed item. Earn at least 10 MPs to win the game.
PS. I think for many of us, breaking big tasks into easy, little ones feels like cheating or laziness. It isn't. It's being smart and tailoring your to-do list to your Monkey 2.0 brain. Don't make things harder on yourself!
Post your score in the comments...
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