Happy Friday!

Lunch break

Your fingernails click on the clear plastic top of the restaurant table. You shift in your booth and check your watch. It’s been twenty-five minutes since you ordered. You have forty-five minutes total for lunch, which includes the three-minute walk both ways.

You know it’s not your server’s fault. He got the order in right away. But if the kitchen takes any longer, you’ll have to get your meal boxed to go before you take a single bite!

Busy or not busy?

It’s difficult to tell from this story snippet whether this restaurant is busy or not. The efficiency of service in a restaurant goes down in two circumstances: when they’re too busy, and when they’re not busy enough.

That’s something I’ve spotted in productivity systems, too. There’s a “Goldilocks” just-right amount of busy-ness that creates both the best service in a restaurant and the most efficiency in a productivity system. Because just like in a commercial kitchen, there’s a rhythm to the way you work. And if that rhythm lags, it can be hard to pick back up!

Flow and Rhythm

There is a concept in the productivity community called flow, which is often associated with the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. Flow is the state of being immersed in a task, fully engaged with the work.

If flow is a state of "Deep Work," rhythm reflects "Distributed Work." Rhythm is what you need to execute smaller tasks quickly, with minimal transition. Rhythm can even be used in place of flow when you have a lot of little blocks of time but few large ones. For instance, four one-hour blocks spread out over time could serve in place of one four-hour block, if you have a good productivity rhythm.

💡 Find your rhythm and do your dance 💡

👆 That’s your weekend upgrade.

Rhythm relies on (1) brief, sometimes automated, startup and shutdown routines for each work session, and (2) tasks that are clustered to minimize transitions. If you set efficient routines and cluster tasks, you’ll work quickly and effectively.

(1) Set efficient routines

The routines for productivity rhythm are fast. They're not drawn out morning rituals or gentle reviews at the end of the day. Rituals and reviews are valuable—but that's not what "rhythm routines" are. Rhythm routines quickly and efficiently get you into and out of work sessions.

My work session startup routine is selecting my task and clicking a button (powered by a SmartBlock in Roam Research). That process creates a Log entry where I can work or take relevant notes, as needed. It also adds a start time for my current work.

And that's it! That's how quick my startup routine is!

My work session shutdown routine is in two parts. First, I define my next action related to that particular work, if any. Defining a next action is especially critical if I’m using rhythm as a substitute for flow. As long as I’m clear on what’s next—and the materials I need are linked to the task and readily available—I can use several short work sessions spread out over time to mimic the value of one large "Deep" work session.

Then second, I click another SmartBlock button to close out the Log entry by adding the end time. The entire shutdown takes less than a minute, often less than thirty seconds.

(2) Cluster tasks

Your work rhythm will be further improved when the tasks themselves are closely related—by project, by location, by tools required, by people involved, or by some combination of those (or other) relationships.

When I plan my Agenda for the day, I look at my task list (well, areas of my task list, but I won’t get into that right now). Then, using timeblocks defined around my appointments for the day, I cluster tasks that can be completed one right after the other—bam, bam, bam.

Transitions are where a lot of productivity is lost. We get distracted, we lose momentum. By clustering the tasks and then launching them and closing them out with our efficient routines, we hit a reliable rhythm. And what's more, the more closely related the clusters, the simpler the startup and shutdown routines can be. If I'm working straight down a project list, I may never need to define a next action, and my rhythm can accelerate.

How can Tools for Thought help?

If you’re new to the Weekend Upgrade newsletter, I explore how processes can be created in Tools for Thought (TfTs). TfTs are apps optimized for linking your ideas, thoughts, notes, etc.—apps like Roam Research, Amplenote, Logseq, Obsidian, and Craft.

When I used Todoist—and I did that for six years (I was Enlightened in Todoist Karma terms)—I almost never hit this kind of productivity rhythm. Which seems counterintuitive, because a task app is designed to move us from task to task with minimal transition.

But here’s the thing: it wasn’t my rhythm. I was adapting to Todoist, and that worked sometimes, and other times it didn’t. In a TfT, you can adapt the tool to the way you work!

Try this exercise throughout next week, using your TfT of choice:

(1) Plan an Agenda for each day by timeblocking clusters of related tasks around your calendar appointments.

(2) Log tasks as you do them. Note the time when you start and the task you’re doing. Record the stop time at the end. Remember to define a next task, if necessary.

(3) At the end of the week, look back over what you did and assess what helped you find a better rhythm and what didn’t. Adjust and adapt accordingly.

You can experiment with the “when” and “how” of your clusters and routines to see if any particular approach helps you find a better rhythm.

Intentional limitations

Much like the restaurant that struggles when it’s not busy enough, an empty calendar can make finding your productivity rhythm difficult. Having two or three appointments provides a structure for timeblocking your Agenda, and makes it easier to decide when you need to do which tasks.

If you have trouble finding a rhythm in an otherwise empty day, look for ways to create limitations. Work in more than one location, or schedule some meetings with friends and associates—most of us could use an excuse to catch up or collaborate, so that’s two birds with one stone!

What do I do next?

(1) Take 2 minutes and answer this question: What’s one thing I learned in this newsletter that I can put into practice right away?

By committing to a specific action, you make it much more likely you’ll do it.

(2) Do the exercise I listed above: Plan clustered tasks, Log them as you do them, and review the process at the end of the week!

If this was valuable for you:

Share the newsletter with someone you think would also get value from it! https://rjn.st/weekend-upgrade-newsletters​

Until next time, friends:

Once you’ve got rhythm, who could ask for anything more?​

R.J.
​rjn.st/links​

P.S. You may have noticed this is a somewhat shorter edition of the newsletter. That’s for two reasons: (1) I want to make them easier for you to consume and use, and (2) I’m considering going to a weekly newsletter and I need a tighter format to make that happen! Shorter is not easier, though, so I’m experimenting with the form to see if it’s workable for me. I’m open to your feedback!