Experiments with my mind: Rapid task switching for time management

Experiments with my mind: Rapid task-switching for better time management

You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength – Marcus Aurelius

My favorite challenge – a brief revisit with a solution

Not being able to control one’s mind is like sitting in a car that you don’t know how to steer, sadly a one that doesn’t have a break or an opening mechanism. It is therefore imperative to understand the instruction manual for this car called our mind that we are stuck with for life. To begin with, we concerned ourselves previously with why increasing concentration is so challenging? The answer to that is simple – we do not know how to control our mind. In other words, we have a car that we don’t know how to read the instruction manual. In this limited scope, I explore how we tackle the challenge of time-(mis)management through mind regulation. Let’s see how simple solutions can be devised to increase efficiency and optimally finish the task at hand.

A possible solution-space.

Solution-set Analysis and Before-After Story Board

As we can see from the chart above, some solutions require a huge opportunity cost in terms of implementation and risk. These are best avoided. For e.g. cutting off communication could be a double-edged sword that on the one hand, may lead to an increased concentration for a while, but because of the mind’s tendency for picture-completion or sense-making of the environment, the chances of wandering increase highly. It might be a good idea to adopt this approach and test if it works in the absence of other solutions, but not in this situation considering the typical lifestyle of a working professional. Some solutions, as highlighted by the yellow regions, the so-called low hanging fruits, can be tested out at a relatively low opportunity cost of compromising on other things but have a relatively high efficacy in increasing concentration.

Let’s analyze the solution to make a strict schedule upon waking up every day. It is relatively low on opportunity cost sacrifice and has a relatively high impact if practiced correctly. Given below is how a before-and-after story-board (a feels-like) prototype would pan out:

The underlying assumption behind the idea is that pre-planned triggers lead to better mental accounting, creating urgency and hence generating the required concentration stamina to finish the task working backwards. Thus, this is a hypothesis that we would need to test – committing something to muscle memory by simply writing it down every day actually evokes neural responses to realize the action as desired.

The Looks-Like prototype

A looks-like prototype that can be performed to test this hypothesis can be a simple set of calendar-like pages which have milestones defined in terms of achievement and punishments written in terms of any deviation. In order for this prototype to have credibility, and hence be successful, the controls need to be transferred to an external third party or even a bot. It is difficult to do that in a looks-like prototype, but eventual conversion to a works-like prototype can ensure this by linking event completion/non-completion to something like a google calendar which can automatically trigger rewards on completion and punishments on the deviation. Or, alarms can be manually set at milestones which require solving of a puzzle/question to switch off. This introduces an expansion of the “notification period” when the alarm cannot be simply turned off with a click, thereby reinforcing the need for task switching as signaled by the alarm.

For now, a no-frills set of tap cards can do the trick which should be filled honestly throughout the day. Corresponding to each task-switch time point, a puzzle/question alarm should be set up which shouldn’t go off with simply a click. Honestly is required to feel the complete results of this experiment.

An hour by hour account is presented alongside, a routine which has to be done upon waking up every day. The idea behind this activity is that taking stock of the tasks to be completed throughout the day leads to a better mental accounting of how much time is really needed for each task and overflows are avoided.

This is only a looks-like prototype, in reality, this should be the UI/UX display of an app that keeps track of the activities planned and successfully completed, linked with alarm triggers which go off when completion is not recorded (shown on next page). Upon exceeding the allocated time limit, an alarm prompt would go off which would be programmed to get turned off only upon completion (about which people would need to be honest) or unless you accept a task switch so that tasks down the line are not hampered.

Feasibility Testing– A One-Day Experiment.

1.     Build a tap card physical replica of a daily planner app by putting down all time slots, checkboxes and webbed conditions of rewards and punishments.

2.     Put all the activities that need to be done and all the tasks that need to be accomplished as a dump on the blank card.

3.     Place all these events in an appropriate time slot along the daily calendar of the tap-card allowing sufficient time for completion.

4.     Tick off all tasks completed in chronological sequence without deviating from the order.

5.     To simulate task linkage, simultaneously put alarms on a smartphone (at each event completion time point) which has a clock app that only turns off on solving a puzzle/algebraic math problem (to induce a longer realization period).

6.     Meticulously and honestly record the progression of each event throughout the day.

Hypothesis to be tested:

The underlying hypothesis here is that overworking muscle memory leads to an increased neural response to achieve what is intended. I am hoping that the annoyance created by not finishing a task on time and having to consequently listen to an unpleasant alarm sound for a longer duration would deter me from expanding work to occupy all time available. This is at the heart of procrastination, and by making it unpleasant, perhaps it can be averted. The hypothesis would test positive if at the end of the day I would feel more accomplished on having completed all my tasks on time. Subtlety here lies in the fact that most people agree that an exam-like environment evokes unwavering concentration. The most salient feature of an exam is time-boundedness which is being replicated here. The other, of course, is reward which can be built into the rules and drive the experimental velocity.

Cost of the experiment:

The cost of running this experiment is next to nothing, even when considered in terms of opportunity costs. The maximum that this experiment takes away is time, for which, too, it more than compensates.

Metrics to measure experimental success:

Any experimental design requires certain metrics to know how success the test conducted has performed. It isn’t driven by results but the ability to generate one with sufficient replicability. In this case, the success of this experiment will be determined by if I am prompted to repeat the experiment on a daily basis and reproduce at least same or generate better results as time goes by as it is a habit-building platform.