Getting things done

What motivates people? I am not speculating about long-term planning here, but about the kind of decisions at the margin that shape the course of individual days: the points where a symmetry collapses in favour of making that the last time you hit the snooze button or that the last chapter you read before you go biking.

Individually, such decisions can be put down to context and to whim. Because they aggregate into productive or unproductive days, which in turn aggregate into weeks and months, understanding how to manipulate marginal decisions seems like a path for improving efficiency. Setting up efficient systems of reward and punishment, accompanied by personal prohibitions on really wasteful activities, seems like a good idea. With all the things that I can feel looming over me, I am feeling the need to do better at getting things done. After all, I need to brush up on two unfamiliar subjects, as well as finishing the fish paper editing, by next Thursday. Then, I have a package of tasks to finish for Dr. Hurrell before August 3rd.

An obvious productivity booster is to ban myself from blogging, but I think that would actually be counterproductive. The blog really helps me keep track of projects and ideas. A ban from reading other peoples’ blogs (I track 116, including many that are updated more than ten times a day) might be far more sensible.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here. View all posts by Milan