Perhaps there is an optimal balance between habits and deliberation.
Too much on the side of habits, and you just keep doing the same behavior over and over again. Not necessarily a bad thing; sometimes you get lucky and the strategy you started with is actually a good one, and can bring you success in life. But you need the luck.
Too much on the side of deliberation, and your clever ideas get undermined by lack of “automated operations” that would keep you moving forward. The result is procrastination; well known among the readers of this website.
And the optimal balance probably depends on your current situation in life. After you achieve some success, you have more choices, and now deliberation probably becomes more useful. But again, there is such thing as too much meta-deliberation; obsessing “exactly how much time should I spend thinking and how much time should I spend working” generates neither useful work nor useful directions for work.
I guess, the more meta, the less time you should give it, unless you already have evidence that the previous level of meta was useful to you. (When you notice that spending some time thinking increases the productivity of the time when you are working, that is the right moment to think about how much time do you actually want to spend planning.) Also, meta decisions take time to bring fruit at the object level, so when you make plans, you should spend the following days executing the plans instead of adjusting them; otherwise you decide without feedback.
Also, meta decisions take time to bring fruit at the object level, so when you make plans, you should spend the following days executing the plans instead of adjusting them; otherwise you decide without feedback.
Execution is Actual Work, though! Noooooooooooooooo!
(I’m adding that to my fortune file. I could use the reminder from time to time.)
Perhaps there is an optimal balance between habits and deliberation.
Too much on the side of habits, and you just keep doing the same behavior over and over again. Not necessarily a bad thing; sometimes you get lucky and the strategy you started with is actually a good one, and can bring you success in life. But you need the luck.
Too much on the side of deliberation, and your clever ideas get undermined by lack of “automated operations” that would keep you moving forward. The result is procrastination; well known among the readers of this website.
And the optimal balance probably depends on your current situation in life. After you achieve some success, you have more choices, and now deliberation probably becomes more useful. But again, there is such thing as too much meta-deliberation; obsessing “exactly how much time should I spend thinking and how much time should I spend working” generates neither useful work nor useful directions for work.
I guess, the more meta, the less time you should give it, unless you already have evidence that the previous level of meta was useful to you. (When you notice that spending some time thinking increases the productivity of the time when you are working, that is the right moment to think about how much time do you actually want to spend planning.) Also, meta decisions take time to bring fruit at the object level, so when you make plans, you should spend the following days executing the plans instead of adjusting them; otherwise you decide without feedback.
Execution is Actual Work, though! Noooooooooooooooo!
(I’m adding that to my fortune file. I could use the reminder from time to time.)