Priming the Pump

Before we had our son a few years ago I had a simple system for getting work done.  Each night I would put one item on my todo list for the next day, the one task I knew would provide the most leverage over everything else.

The next day I would wake up, get dressed, and immediately start work on that single task.  I would be fully focused – in “flow”, as it’s commonly known – and the work would fly by.

Once I ran out of steam, I would take a break and then do whatever I wanted to do with the rest of my day, including tackling other, less important items on my list.

Now, of course, my priorities have changed.  I wake up in the morning with my son, we get dressed, have breakfast, and goof off a bit before I drive him to school.  After dropping him off, I return home to tackle my one task.

I quickly found, however, that once I was already a few hours into my day it was difficult to hit that one task full force.  It was a struggle, I was distracted, and when the work did finally begin, it was difficult to get in “flow”.

Months went by, and I slowly developed a theory as to why this was happening.

After a few hours of the morning had passed, my brain had already been wandering around a bit, tugging on a few different problems (“How the hell do you get dried bananas unstuck from Legos?”, “Why do I have to ask thirty times before he puts his shoes on?”, etc), and even doing a bit of daydreaming in the car.

By the time I sat down to get my one task for the day done, my mind was already distracted and required quite a bit of settling down before I could dig in.  And during that period I was likely to get further distracted by email, social media, a cool programming problem, working on my crappy-but-improving handstand, or a host of other fun but low-priority business.

The longer I delayed in starting my task, the longer it took and the weaker my focus was when I began.  The result was an enormous amount of time wasted.

With a theory in hand, I decided to start experimenting with ways to get back into “flow” after a morning full of activity.

It’s been several months, and now I’m able to drive home after dropping off my son, walk in the house, and jump into work, fully focused, right away.

The difference?  Priming.

The ride home from my son’s school takes about 15 minutes.  For that 15 minutes I now focus solely on the task on which I’ll be working.  No music, no podcasts, no problem-solving not related to the task, no daydreaming, etc.  I turn the task over in my mind, hitting it from every direction , looking for pitfalls, shortcuts, and alternative solutions.

By the time I get home I can hardly wait to dig in.  It’s been exciting to discover the difference a few minutes of “pre-task mental focus” – priming – can make.

The next step is to start cutting down the “priming” time from 15 minutes, to 10, to 5, etc until I see just how little time I can spend priming for the task and still be able to jump in, fully engaged and ready to rock.  Can I get to a place where I can sit front of my chosen task for 10 seconds, then attack it with focus?  I don’t know, but it’s worth the time and practice to find out.

There are undoubtedly many people out there that can don’t need priming, and can just engage and be in “flow”.  I’m not one of them, and it’s going to require a good deal of work to get there.

The journey continues.