Boring-ass productivity stuff
It's the middle of the week after all
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SHOWS
Well-Dressed at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel - Friday 8/30 at 7:30
B.Y.O.B. at The Crow (Santa Monica) - Saturday 9/7 at 5:00 - (This is a show for parents with babies in case you are one of them! Bring a dang baby to a comedy show, get to sleep early, let’s mess around!)
Big Pine Comedy Festival in Chandler, AZ - Wednesday 9/25 - Sunday 9/29 - shows every day!
If you’re in Altanta and New Orleans, some exciting news coming soon!
Alrighty folks,
I’m so off-schedule, but I promise we will return to Sunday night/Monday morning SternJourns SOON. I’ve been back from Edinburgh Fringe for about 72 hours and miss it dearly. In an upcoming SternJourn, I will go into the emotions and events associated with it (kinda like I did last week), but right now, I want to toss out a boring productivity thing that kept me sane this month. And that is…
Disclaimer: if you’re new here, the Sternal Journal is a strange mix of humorous essays, semi-humorous semi-essay experimental writing things, and then occasionally just a straight up productivity thing that helps me make the humorous essays and semi-humorous etc. etcs. People seem to like it, but I’m self-conscious about the fact that someone might think I’m just a loser productivity nerd, so I wanted to get that out there. ANYWAY
The Holding Tank To-Do List
I am constantly trying to corral and wrangle the tasks that I have to do for others (jobs, favors, being a good loved one) and the ones that I want to do for myself (dreams, goals, being a good self-loved one). For this reason, I have behind me a veritable elephants’ graveyard of productivity hacks and apps and methods and all that jazz.
So while I have no idea how long this one will stick, I’ve found it a refreshing solution to the problem that most often derails my attempts to get done what I wanna get done. That problem, namely, is that I have a lot of shit I want to do.
But it’s technically nice to want to do a lot of shit. As long as you have the time to do it, having a lot of shit do can provide purpose and direction and all those nice things which support a life well-lived.
HOWEVER, when you have a lot of shit to do, and you want to keep all of that shit in one place, like on a to-do list or in a journal or something, and you see all of that shit, it’s very easy to viscerally feel that, no matter how much time you have, there is simply too much shit to do.
And having too much shit to do is quite different from having a lot of shit to do. Whereas a lot of shit to do signals purpose and direction, too much shit to do by definition tells that you will not do all of the shit. It evokes failure and overwhelm and the idea that you will have to make tough decisions in which you feel like you are letting down yourself or others or just the ideals you want to live by.
This is a bad feeling.
It is also, sometimes, an inaccurate feeling. Oftentimes, for me at least, if I’m staring at a To-Do list wither everything I want to get done, from thinks like brushing my teeth to completing a totally unrealized creative project by the end of next year, my brain does not comprehend that this shit does not all need to (and can not) get done right now.
In short, a comprehensive to-do list is a great tool but also a great source of overwhelm.
That’s where the holding tank comes in. I stole and modified this from a book I’m reading, Slow Productivity by Cal Newport. Newport created this method less for day-to-day tasks and more for keeping track and staying focused on larger scale projects, but also his book is more for like UX designers and manufacturing consultants and other jobs I don’t really understand, so I’ve had to pick and choose what is helpful.
But basically Newports (modified) idea is that you have two (2) to(to1)-do lists: one “Holding Tank” and one “Active.” You can do this on paper or in notes app or whatever. I’ve found it useful to use two separate index card. But they break down like this:
The Holding Tank To-Do List has everything on your to-do list. This is just the normal, full, overwhelming, master to-do list. The list itself is not modified except for the fact that it is hidden away and only reviewed when you need to update the…
Active To-Do List. This one is the one you work off of all the time, but the catch is you only get to have three (3!) items on the Active To-Do List at a time. It does not matter which ones they are. Just the 3 to-do list items that you are hoping to tick off next.
The way I do it, I keep both notecards near me, but the holding tank just says “HOLDING TANK” in big letters on one side and is facedown so I can’t see all the distracting, terrifying dreams and goals I have. The Active is face up with my three significant, but manageable as a bundle tasks. Once I get through those three tasks, I cross them off on the active and then go cross them off on the Holding Tank and find 3 new things I want to tackle.
And if there’s something in the little bundle that I just keep avoiding, I can assume that maybe I’m not ready for the task right now and cross it off without shame or fear that I’ll forget about it because I’ve still got it on the master Holding Tank list.
The effect is that when I check my (active) to-do list to remind myself what I’m doing, I do not have to remind myself of everything I ever want to do which is an awful thing to have to look at. It’s also very nice because, little by little, as you return to the holding tank, you see how much you’ve gotten done, which winds up being quite a lot!
Recommendations!
Without Limits. Film. I watched this Steve Prefontaine biopic on the plane back from the UK. I had seen it at various times, mostly in pieces and mostly at sleep away running (a real thing I did and miss), but in my opinion it holds up and the running didn’t look bad at all. Billy Crudup and Donald Sutherland? Come on now. Plus, it really the essence of the jock cross-country runner, which is a funny vibe. Because it’s these spindly little boys yet they are absolute alpha jocks. I did not think this was weird until I mentioned it in an improv class ten years ago and people were supposed to point out what they thought the “weird” or funny thing could be in my story and this cute girl said, “Well, cross country runners weren’t hot, right? Basketball players and football players are.”
Love You. Stand Up Special. This Josh Safdie-directed Adam Sandler Netflix special is very, very funny. I honestly think most people would love.
26.2 to Life. Film. I also watched this on the plane. It’s a documentary about the San Quentin 1,000 Mile Club, a running club inside San Quentin Penitentiary. They do a marathon in the prison yard and it’s wild and inspiring and uplifting.
Bad Boys. Film. I re-watched this Michael Bay original for the first time since learning that Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey were originally attached for the title roles, which is insane. It mostly holds up, although I forgot how much of it plays on the “trading places” trope between the two of them, which feels like something you would bust out in a sequel, not the original. The guy next to me was watching the fourth sequel, which just came out, and it was trippy to see them side by side.
Alright! That’s all! Hope you have lovely, non-boring very productive end to the week!
Love!
Julian!
P.S. for reading this far, here is a guy I drew today while I was on a call. He is me when I am looking at too long of a to-do list:
There are a lot of real typos in here, but I want to make clear that this extra “to” is a dumb joke I did intentionally.
Nice drawing!