[This is part 9 in the RPG Productivity Player’s Guide series.]
There’s something incredibly satisfying in a good old-fashioned bit of hacking and slashing. I know, I know, we can’t get too violent and all that, sure. But after a long day at work, or when your stress levels are up, it’s just downright relaxing to have some ‘dumb’ combat. All you have to focus on is that enemy and when he’s done, another will pop up.
It works in real life too. No, I’m not talking about hacking and slashing for real—although I do recommend getting a nice sturdy boxing bag and some gloves. Best stress reliever ever!
Hack & Slash
I’m talking about spending a couple of hours doing the same kind of activities. It’s not only very good for your productivity, it’s also incredibly rewarding. This is known as grouping similar tasks. It means that you reserve time to do activities that have something in common, for instance answering emails, making phone calls, or doing financial administration.
How you group these activities is up to you. You can choose things that require the same physical work place, the same technology, the same kind of thinking (work vs private for instance, or ministry vs private), or anything else that makes sense to you. What matters is that you somehow see these activities as connected and that by doing them at the same time in bursts instead of spreading them out, you create a certain flow effect.
The Action Button
Let’s make this practical. Every Monday is my admin day. This is where I tackle all our bills, update our financial admin, pay whatever needs to be paid, make appointments for doctor’s visits or car repairs, answer emails, etc. I only do this on Monday. When something comes up on another day, it will have to wait unless it’s urgent.
The result is that I am focused on my other work the rest of the week and am not distracted by these pesky little tasks that end up costing so much time. I only have to boot up these programs and apps once a week for instance. I only file once a week. And the rest of the week, I can ignore this stuff and just put it in a file that will wait until Monday. On Mondays, I work through everything and even though they’re different kind of activities, I experience a flow because it’s all small admin stuff.
In the same way, I have one or two mornings a week dedicated to blog post writing. Whether it’s for my own blog or for ChurchMag, that doesn’t really matter. The activity of writing is the same. Because I group these tasks together, I’m focused and I usually crank out way more posts than when I do one every day.
The Big Threat
Here’s the big threat to hacking-and-slashing: getting distracted. In games, that will get you killed. In real life, it will cost you time and above all, focus. If you’re hacking-and-slashing your way through answering your email for instance—which I recommend you group and do it once a day at most, except for truly urgent stuff—don’t let yourself get distracted by anything else. Allow ‘flow’ to exist, because it will increase your focus and productivity—and it’s proven to positively influence your creativity as well!
Eric Dye says
I’ve been giving this a try ever since I edited and scheduled this to be posted. So far, it is going really well. Thank you, Rachel!
Rachel Blom says
It’s made a huge difference for me as well when I started doing this. Glad to hear it’s working for you as well!