In our new "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:
If an idea strikes me I can sit down with a notebook for 5 minutes and jot it down, but if I’m trying to write an essay then I find it really difficult to make any progress in spits and spots - I like to have multiple hours set aside. These are less available these days. Any tips for making use of the odd 10-15 minutes here and there?
I am not an effective 'micro-worker', so I don't have any helpful tips.
But what about the rest of you? Any tips for the OP?
Sometimes I start working on something by sitting down and figuring where I'm at and what comes next. That can take 10-15 minutes, so if that's where I'm at when I start, then I won't get much done in a short amount of time.
But you can organize your work so that when you end, you know exactly what work needs to comes next, enabling you to pick it up later. This can help you to get things done in a short amount of time.
For example, I'll highlight where I'm at, and sometimes write a note of what the next step needs to be. And that way I'm more able to drop in and continue working, even for short periods.
Posted by: gradstudent | 10/07/2024 at 10:16 AM
Set yourself a small, achievable goal (e.g. write 200 words, fix the typos, tweak §4, read a few pages for that referee report, etc.) at the beginning of the day, and achieve that goal as early in the day as you can. Basically, you should break your big tasks up into smaller tasks which you can complete in the little chunks you'll have.
You'll get used to the pattern of setting aside and returning after a little while. You'll also have longer periods to work sometimes, and you can dedicate those to larger, but still achievable, goals (e.g. finish §3, write 700 words, etc.).
But also: start identifying when in the day you're likely to have your small chunks (e.g. commuting on the bus, in your office hours, between classes, etc.), and when the time comes around, don't dawdle. Start working right away. You don't have to feel compelled to use every chunk of time for work; that's why you should identify a small goal each morning, and complete it as early as you can. Once you've achieved that goal, you can decide to use your chunks in some other way (e.g. surfing the blogs). But you do need to actually do your bit every day, otherwise it won't add up.
Good luck!
Posted by: Michel | 10/07/2024 at 10:32 AM
a small suggestion. After your 15 minute session, print out what you have done. Keep adding to you, and editing it. It will become a paper.
Posted by: just a thought | 10/07/2024 at 11:32 AM
If you're in a subfield that works with foreign languages, language work is great for short spurts:
1. If you know a language well, translation work is perfect for this: https://jacobjandrews.wordpress.com/2024/04/12/more-philosophers-should-be-translators/
2. If you're learning a language, speaking as a language teacher as well as a philosopher: the most important thing in learning a language is not continually tackling harder grammar and trickier translations, but reading and listening to massive amounts of easy input in your language. So find some easy kids' books or graded readers in your language, reread the exercises in the textbook you're using; or, if absolutely necessary, drill noun and verb paradigms or vocab lists. (Spaced repetition programs like Anki make this as efficient as possible.)
Posted by: Jacob Joseph Andrews | 10/07/2024 at 01:16 PM
Also: learning to think about academic work/thought in terms of linked atomic ideas can be empowering when you have limited time to work. It's not the all-or-nothing utopian solution its proponents sometimes make it out to be, but I've found it to be a really useful mindset shift. See here: https://theinformed.life/2023/09/10/episode-122-soenke-ahrens/
Posted by: Jacob Joseph Andrews | 10/07/2024 at 01:19 PM
I know this isn't the answer that OP is looking for, but is the solution really to find a way to accomplish what should be deep work in spurts of micro-working?
Deep work takes uninterrupted blocks of time. Small blocks are for quick things like email and checking off your todo list.
Posted by: Assistant prof | 10/07/2024 at 01:42 PM
10-15 minutes is an especially small amount of time. I use those free bits during the day mostly for reading and responding to emails or catching up on the day's blog posts. In doing so, those tasks are things I no longer have to during the portions of the day where larger blocks of uninterrupted work time exist.
If the issue is that there aren't any large time blocks (e.g., 2 hours) to work with, I think the solution would be to create those time blocks by restructuring your commitments and communicating with those around you about the importance of having some larger isolated time blocks each week.
Posted by: Trevor Hedberg | 10/07/2024 at 02:10 PM