Journal: Nov 7

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Wish I had more RAM. Not in my computer but in my brain. Working memory. Feels like I’m at 100% capacity 100% of the time these days.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still way better than worrying about risk and uncertainty. And going from that to growth and some level of certainty is euphoric. But in other ways it’s simultaneously a complete assault on the brain.

It’s like max dopamine and max cortisol at the same time.

Anyway, even if I had more working memory it would probably still get blown out. Which probably indicates a user error, lol.

One thing I’ve noticed is that I actually feel like I go down in working memory utilization when I’m deeply focused on a single thing. It’s happening right now as I write this. Flow state.

Maybe that’s it, it’s hard to stay in flow state when there’s so much stuff happening. And maybe that’s why people plan out their day in time blocks, to shield attention and maximize time in flow state while making sure to rotate between responsibilities frequently enough that nothing gets left idle for too long.

I used to think time blocking was more of a discipline thing, but perhaps it’s more than that. Might need to give it a try.

Have I tried pruning unnecessary tasks or delegating?

I have started delegating, though it’s going to take some time for delegating to reach full effect since it’s still in the “training up” process where delegated projects can’t be too big and lots of feedback is required.

Things are definitely going the right direction where delegated projects are getting bigger and feedback is getting more high-level, but it’s a long ramp-up period to get to the point of full effect.

Am I pruning? Yeah, but probably not enough. I think I’m pruning the actual work pretty well, but I probably need to prune communication more.

For instance I try to respond to pretty much every question on here and elsewhere, answer those questions thoroughly, and that’s been slipping lately due to too high volume, which is probably a sign it’s time to back away a bit more and limit responses more strictly to queries that feel particularly worth replying to (like your comment here).

Which feels disappointing because I hate ignoring good/genuine questions but it’s just a reality that there’s not enough time in the day.

Or maybe I should collect good questions over the week, that I don’t have bandwidth to respond to, and then just take an hour on the weekend to go through and record verbal responses, which is way faster than writing.

Will think on it.

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