Today has a post, but first things first.
Let me tell you about homestuck.
The Story
Halo 4
Forward unto rants
Halo 4 was supposed to be the chosen one. The world was a buzz with the return of Master Chief, Spartan 117 and to everyone’s surprise Microsoft pulled off a great mini-series Forward Unto Dawn. The halo series had been out for more than a decade now and had been paired with quality novels picking up before, during, and in between game events. What may come as a surprise to many, Halo has an incredibly deep plot, and rich history. Not only that, but the way that the story was developed leaves almost infinite possibilities to expand the narrative in even more interesting ways. All of this was coming together wonderfully. The most interesting parts of the novels and games were coming together in what looked to be a Halo story for the “hard-core” Halo fan. For residents of Halo Nation, this was epic. It is an odd fandom when you have about 50/50 who exclusively play multiplayer, or who play mostly single player and have also read every scrap of plot and lore possible. After more than ten years, it seemed like what was once only tucked away into the books was going to get lovingly integrated into Halo 4.
This didn’t happen.
For why?
One simple thing, and the point of today’s post: they did everything, so they had time for nothing.
Halo 4’s story was so ambitious that they tried to provide practically 2 to 3 stories worth of content and connections into one game and have it work. I have my own issues about what story they chose to tell, but for what they tried to do, there just wasn’t time in one game to accomplish it. I’ve read and discussed just about everything possible in this canon, and it took me more than 2 play throughs to figure out what was going on, and to understand the scope what what 343 really had tried to do. There was just so much going on in their story, that players couldn’t properly follow any one line of thought. By bringing in plot lines and characters from everywhere, the story ended up being awkwardly paced, ill explained, huge jumps of logic, and to be quite honest, I’m pretty sure included some space magic at one point (or at the least ‘plot majyicks’).
Wub muggin’
At just about every juncture, and in every task, we have been told to strive and multitask. In school, when working, when socializing, it all is about doing as many things at possible all at once, and supposedly saving time in the long run. Unfortunately, we humans just aren’t that good at it. If needed, I’ll find some research to cite, but at this point, I think these findings are starting to be common knowledge, so I won’t dwell on them. Rather, here is an interesting thought exercise that can help to narrow a spazzed mind used to trying to do 8 things at once.
Exercise:
1. Just take notice of when you are stretched thin, and why. This can be having 3 conversation boxes open at once, or any other number of things. For me, this generally occurs for me when cooking, or when I’m on a computer. Take notice, and if possible, remove yourself from one or more of those tasks.
2. If they can wait, que them for later. Deal with as few things at a time, and you’ll faster through your tasks. I’ve found this even when trying to relax and eat something while watching a series or a movie. I end up missing parts of the movie when I eat, or more likely, I watch the whole thing, then look down at my cold, sad food.
3. Once you’ve practiced paring down the number of tasks you do at a time down to just one at a time, you’ll have set yourself up for better environment for flow. For now, just think of flow as being ‘in the game’. You’re fully engaged with the task at hand, and as such, produce higher quality materials in fractions of the time.You’ll also find that flow states come and go and mostly never visit when you need them. Take heart that what you practice, you get better at, and eventually it will be easier to set up flow states. (I will be talking MUCH more about flow later. If there are questions, please comment and I’ll try to answer them in that upcoming post)
4. Lastly, things are simple. With simplicity, comes a lack of freaking out, or stressing for no reason. Keep your nose to the grindstone of your particular task and don’t worry about the others. If at all else, everyone can use a little less stress.
The sideways lesson for this, is that by getting into this habit, you’re setting yourself up to be managed. By you. With more habits. By doing one task at a time, without distractions, you end up finishing faster. Completing tasks is intrinsically rewarding. Doubly so if the task was self imposed. And triply so if it means you can brag to social outlet. Learning to zero in on just one thing at a time is like training wheels for self-improvement.
ONE MORE THING!
The last step of the exercise is to extend it to your whole day. Sit down with some paper, and take a dedicated amount of time to make a list. Make a category for Today, This Week, This Month, This Year, and then under each write no more than 3 tasks that HAVE to be done. Fill this out. I find it better to work backwards (from ‘year’ to ‘today’).
Credit for this next part goes to Tim Ferriss, and I strongly recommend reading his book, 4 Hour Work-Week. As I have mentioned already, you have to have good reasons for doing things, meeting deadlines and the like or there is no motivation to do it. Tim Ferriss poses the question, “What one thing would change everything?”. Get out another piece of paper, make the same categories, but this time, you only get to write one thing.
This will also feed into your lack of stress for the day. By singling out the 3 tasks that would make the day productive, you’ve effectively done away with other distraction tasks and can focus on those more important tasks sooner, and with greater assurance that you’re progressing.
Wrap up:
We suck at multitasking. What we end up doing is many things, and none of them done well. In order to combat this and take advantage of flow states, manage your schedule to focus on one item at a time. For bonus points, expand this to your week, month, and year goals.
“What is the one thing that would change everything?”
Stepping Stones and Comfort Zones 