Last Friday’s IPM with Steve Kim uncovered something interesting that I was not fully noticing.

I have been lately feeling like in a zombie mental state. I was having difficulties to focus. I spent time on irrelevant things. I was not getting things done.

An example of that is what happened to me on last Thursday; I was working on implementing a GUI with the tic-tac-toe code I had, but I was struggling to do it; I couldn’t find a way to approach it. I spent all that morning only trying to focus and thinking. After lunch, I was desperate. Observing it, Makis suggested that going for a walk could help, so I tried it.

I went for a walk, bought some cookies and sat for a bit in a small park. There, I cleared my mind enjoying those cookies and the sunny weather that rarely is available in London. After 30 minutes of not thinking about the problem, it was time to go back. On my way I started thinking that the approach I was trying was too forced; the approach I was trying was supposed to require only a few changes to the codebase, but I couldn’t find a way of fully do it. Why not try a different approach that requires changing more code?

With that idea in mind, when I arrived to the office, I grabbed my computer and entered in the zone immediately and did not stop for almost anything. At the end of the day I had the necessary information to sense that the new approach was more suitable and easier to understand.

What a difference between that morning and the afternoon!

Although disconnecting for a bit worked at that moment, the problem with me feeling zombie and not being productive is at a much fundamental level.

As, David Allen says in his talk:

Interestingly, the more it is on your mind, the more is not happening, the more you are inappropriately engaged with it.

Don't keep anything on your head the rest of your life. Everything that your committed to finish that takes more than one step to finish it you need to clarify exactly what that outcome of the project is and put that on a project list that you look at it at least once a week.

What's the problem? There is a more subliminal crisis that happens; The whole world now floods into your psyche and that could easily create a sense of overwhelm, a sense of confusion, a sense of conflict, every single thing seems to demand equal kind of attention for you. And then you usually respond to that by either numbing out or getting crazy busy. And then you blame that stress on the lack of time. All I need is more time.