Not everything deserves my best hours. Took me way too long to figure that out.
I've written before about my peak window being roughly 4 AM to noon. That's when the real work happens. After that? I'm coasting and sometimes barely functional. I used to waste those good morning hours on email and admin garbage because it felt productive.
It wasn't.
Now I keep a mental list of tasks that wait. The stuff that has to get done but doesn't need me to be sharp. Email, filing, cleaning up folders and responding to things that don't require actual thought. Basically work that can be done on nothing but fumes. The tasks I can knock out when my brain is already half checked out.
The good hours go to the hard stuff. Writing, studying, and anything where I actually have to think. If I blow that window answering emails that could've waited until 2 PM, I don't get a do over.
Does this mean some stuff sits longer than it should? Yeah, the waiting email list doesn't get touched when I'm running hot. And if I'm having a rough day, maybe nothing gets touched. But most days the system works. Important stuff first, everything else fills in the cracks.
Email feels urgent, it's not. Notifications feel important, they're not. The inbox can wait until I'm useless anyway.
Now,, I will say, this works for my situation, it may not work for you.
What about you? Do you have tasks that wait or do you just tackle whatever screams loudest?
Thanks for reading,
Joe
Notes:
-All content is mine unless otherwise annotated.
-Images are my own unless otherwise noted.
-Photos edited using MS Paint and/or iPhone SE.
-Page Dividers from The Terminal Discord.
