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The author seems to be suggesting that people are spending time on routine tasks that are somehow not mandatory. All routine tasks are mandatory. That's why the

The author seems to be suggesting that people are spending time on routine tasks that are somehow not mandatory. All routine tasks are mandatory. That's why they become routine, become a part of a person's routine, and have the highest possible priority. Most of them relate to survival and hygiene because we have not yet escaped biology. Others are things like filing taxes which are made mandatory by our society. What is the author suggesting people do? Be wealthy enough to pay someone else to take care of those tasks when possible? Suffer by leaving those tasks un-done, or done to a less than satisfactory level? What tasks exactly is the author de-prioritizing?

mindslight 4y ago
My own reaction to the headline is "because otherwise the routine/mandatory tasks build up, and then you have no control over your time as continually context switch to put out fires and even previously fun-creative tasks become a death march". But I've also settled a few estates, which is basically a whole batch of mandatory tasks and other unfinished business being dumped into your own run queue. I think a charitable reading of the article is that it's coming from the perspective of someone who finds themselves gravitating towards routine tasks, but isn't swamped by them. So perhaps they find themselves doing one or two routine tasks per day, then being too tired to do anything creative, rather than batching the routine tasks so they could have more creative days. And the answer there is that routine tasks (especially say full time employment), suck out your creative energy in a way that takes down time ("relaxation") to make up for. I think the article should have gone into a lot more depth exploring various concrete strategies to manage this, instead of being mostly aspirational. If it at least listed some details about the author's situation and what they found helpful, I think the non-universality of the sentiment would have been a lot clearer.
- Bakary 4y ago
  No blog post can teach you concrete strategies because they are dependent on your own life and its precise parameters. But even the simple idea of examining the building blocks of your life that you don't usually think about is a good start.
jrm4 4y ago
I think many of us, in retrospect, too much time. especially on those mandatory-ish, unfixed tasks, or those that we e.g. "should be better about doing earlier." and then end up not?
koheripbal 4y ago
It's not a very well thought out article. There are probably things in our "routine" that don't need to be there or could be automated. ...or maybe we've taken on certain support tasks that require too much maintenance. ...or maybe they really are necessary. This is the complexity of thinking and planning you need to do it you run out of free time. I'll say that with three young kids - I've entirely run out of enough free time to even handle all the routines. Stuff breaks as a result and it's a bit of chaotic juggling in this house these days. ...but it's also true that we underestimate the benefits of creative ideas because they don't come to fruition for a long time - so we can overload ourselves with routine tasks that might have a net lower value.

mindslight 4y ago

My own reaction to the headline is "because otherwise the routine/mandatory tasks build up, and then you have no control over your time as continually context switch to put out fires and even previously fun-creative tasks become a death march". But I've also settled a few estates, which is basically a whole batch of mandatory tasks and other unfinished business being dumped into your own run queue. I think a charitable reading of the article is that it's coming from the perspective of someone who finds themselves gravitating towards routine tasks, but isn't swamped by them. So perhaps they find themselves doing one or two routine tasks per day, then being too tired to do anything creative, rather than batching the routine tasks so they could have more creative days. And the answer there is that routine tasks (especially say full time employment), suck out your creative energy in a way that takes down time ("relaxation") to make up for. I think the article should have gone into a lot more depth exploring various concrete strategies to manage this, instead of being mostly aspirational. If it at least listed some details about the author's situation and what they found helpful, I think the non-universality of the sentiment would have been a lot clearer.

Bakary 4y ago
No blog post can teach you concrete strategies because they are dependent on your own life and its precise parameters. But even the simple idea of examining the building blocks of your life that you don't usually think about is a good start.

jrm4 4y ago

I think many of us, in retrospect, too much time. especially on those mandatory-ish, unfixed tasks, or those that we e.g. "should be better about doing earlier." and then end up not?

koheripbal 4y ago

It's not a very well thought out article. There are probably things in our "routine" that don't need to be there or could be automated. ...or maybe we've taken on certain support tasks that require too much maintenance. ...or maybe they really are necessary. This is the complexity of thinking and planning you need to do it you run out of free time. I'll say that with three young kids - I've entirely run out of enough free time to even handle all the routines. Stuff breaks as a result and it's a bit of chaotic juggling in this house these days. ...but it's also true that we underestimate the benefits of creative ideas because they don't come to fruition for a long time - so we can overload ourselves with routine tasks that might have a net lower value.