Let's get practical #2: Deep Work & Organization

[Raphael]

Structural Change + New Metric: Progress

So... I have been tracking my work habit for a bit more than one year now and I got results: I can work for longer hours and can also focus better. I now want to make a few changes here.

The issue that I see is that I often focus more on the hours that I put in rather than making progress in the work. What I care about is the result that I create while working, not the number of hours that I put in so I'm going to focus less on the time spend and more on the progress. I'm going to stop tracking my hours and I'm going to add a new metric called "Progress". This metric is an indication of how much progress I make during a work session. I sometimes noticed myself spending a lot of time turning into circles in order to convince myself that I'm actually making progress, where this is not the case. This new metric will help me acknowledging if I'm actually making real progress or just fooling myself. It has 5 levels:

1. Very Low Progress
2. Low Progress
3. Normal / Average Progress
4. Good Progress
5. A lot of Progress

[Raphael]

16 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 07:00 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 10:36 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ✅ No social media until 7 PM
• ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Deep Work Sessions:

• 10:06 AM - 12:17 AM
  • I did some progress on video upload.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 01:44 PM - 02:49 PM
  • I did some progress in handling video limitations. I had many unrelated thoughts.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 04:38 PM - 06:17 PM
  • I did some checks, responded to a client, and worked on an interactive map.
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5

 

• Average Focus: 3.58 / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: 3.5 / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 16, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

17 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 07:10 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 10:35 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ✅ No social media until 7 PM
• ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Deep Work Sessions:

• 09:43 AM - 10:49 AM
  • I worked on an interactive map. I wanted to work more on my app, but I got interrupted.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 11:09 AM - 12:03 AM
  • I'm currently having some issues integrating AMP.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 01:27 PM - 02:42 PM
  • I did some progress concerning AMP and Javascript communication.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 4/5
• 04:22 PM - 05:46 PM
  • I continued the previous work, but I feel like there is too much limitations with AMP which will cause this issue to be unresolved.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 07:22 PM - 08:47 PM
  • I did some progress on the publishing interface of my app.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 4/5

 

• Average Focus: 3.5 / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: 3.7 / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 17, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

18 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 06:42 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 10:31 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ✅ No social media until 7 PM
• ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Work Sessions:

• 10:13 AM - 11:00 AM
  • I mostly spent time communicating with a client. I also distracted myself a bit too much.
  • Focus: 3/5
  • Progress: 3/5

Deep Work Sessions:

• 11:22 AM - 12:33 AM
  • I did some improvements on handling files limitations on my app.
  • Focus: 3/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 01:44 PM - 02:44 PM
  • I continued the work on handling file limitations.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 04:35 PM - 06:03 PM
  • I continued the progress on handling file limitations.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.75/5
• 07:30 PM - 09:04 PM
  • I continued working on handling file limitations. I also added a play icon on the small video thumbnails.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 4/5

I felt down today and emotionally quite agitated. It's maybe caused by the fact that I blocked this forum almost entirely. My mind feel the need for a dosage that it cannot have.

• Average Focus: 3.3 / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: 3.55 / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 18, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

19 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 07:41 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 10:22 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ~ No social media until 7 PM (Doesn't apply on Saturday)
• ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Work Sessions:

• No work for today

 

• Average Focus: ~ / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: ~ / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 19, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

20 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 07:47 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:19 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ~ No social media until 7 PM (Doesn't apply on Saturday)
• ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Work Sessions:

• No work for today

 

• Average Focus: ~ / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: ~ / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 20, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

Weekly Statistics (14 June 2021 - 20 June 2021)

 

Average Focus

3.47 / 5

Average Progress / Session

3.56 / 5

[Raphael]

21 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 07:32 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:45 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ❌ No social media until 7 PM
• ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Deep Work Sessions:

• 09:39 AM - 10:54 AM
  • I did some progress on handling file limitations on the publisher interface. I also found some bugs
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 11:22 PM - 12:36 PM
  • I continued the improvements on handling the file limitations.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 01:35 PM - 02:45 PM
  • I continued the previous work.
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 04:43 PM - 06:01 PM
  • I almost completed the publisher interface. I also had a lot of unrelated thoughts.
  • Focus: 3/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 07:19 PM - 08:44 PM
  • I did some good progress on error messages on the interface.
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 4/5

I'm getting a bit lazy in the morning. I'm spending more time laying in bed as it's getting colder outside.

• Average Focus: 3.5 / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: 3.6 / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 21, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

22 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 06:17 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:56 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ❌ No social media until 7 PM
• ❌ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Work Sessions:

• 09:21 AM - 10:35 AM
  • Did some research, some schemas, and responded to a person.
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 4/5

Deep Work Sessions:

• 10:56 AM - 12:15 AM
  • I did some tests and found some bugs. I also distracted myself a bit.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 2/5
• 01:24 PM - 02:32 PM
  • I continued correcting bugs on the publisher interface. I think everything is fine now.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 04:16 PM - 06:03 PM
  • I'm currently changing something on the date time selection popup. I did some good progress, but also had a lot of unrelated thoughts.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.75/5
• 07:02 PM - 08:26 PM
  • I did some work concerning time handling in the date time picker component.
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 3.75/5

 

• Average Focus: 3.6 / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: 3.4 / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 22, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

23 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 06:52 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 10:05 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ❌ No social media until 7 PM
• ❌ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Deep Work Sessions:

• 09:31 AM - 10:37 AM
  • I did some progress on the date time picker. I also had a lot of unrelated thoughts.
  • Focus: 3/5
  • Progress: 3/5
• 10:57 AM - 12:18 AM
  • I continued the work on the date time picker and also continued to have a lot of unrelated thoughts.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 01:30 PM - 02:36 PM
  • I continued the previous work. I had an insane amount of unrelated thoughts.
  • Focus: 3/5
  • Progress: 3/5
• 04:17 PM - 05:20 PM
  • I continued the work concerning the date time picker.
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 07:30 PM - 08:38 PM
  • I continued the work concerning the date time picker.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3/5

 

• Average Focus: 3.35 / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: 3.2 / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 23, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

24 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 06:52 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 11:05 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ❌ No social media until 7 PM
• ❌ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Work Sessions:

• 06:55 AM - 07:24 AM
  • Did some research, responded to a person.
  • Focus: 4/5
  • Progress: 4/5
• 09:28 AM - 09:38 AM
  • I did some checks and sent an email.
  • Focus: 4/5
  • Progress: 4/5
• 01:25 PM - 02:20 PM
  • I fixed a hacked website.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5

Deep Work Sessions:

• 10:50 AM - 12:13 AM
  • Did some improvements on the date time picker. Also responded to a few emails and a phone call.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5

Had a very bad night of sleep, it was tough to work.

• Average Focus: 3.75 / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: 3.75 / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 24, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

25 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 07:45 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 10:40 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ❌ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ❌ No social media until 7 PM
• ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Work Sessions:

• 08:51 PM - 09:20 PM
  • Did some tests, found some bugs on the publisher.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5

Deep Work Sessions:

• 11:20 AM - 12:22 AM
  • Almost completed the issues with this date time picker.
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 3/5
• 01:46 PM - 02:50 PM
  • I continued the work on the date time picker. I also had other thoughts and therefore caused me to be a bit unfocused.
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3/5
• 07:13 PM - 08:43 PM
  • Things are getting better with this date time picker. A few things are a bit messy, but I already lost a lot of time so I won't play the perfectionist here.
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 4/5

I've been backsliding lately. My work has been less regular.

• Average Focus: 3.625 / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: 3.37 / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 25, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

26 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 07:26 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 10:58 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ~ No social media until 7 PM (Doesn't apply on Saturday)
• ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Work Sessions:

• No work for today

 

• Average Focus: ~ / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: ~ / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 26, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

27 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 07:30 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 10:50 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ~ No social media until 7 PM (Doesn't apply on Saturday)
• ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Work Sessions:

• No work for today

I'm currently trying to do some organizational changes concerning my waking up hour and going to bed hours.

• Average Focus: ~ / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: ~ / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 28, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

Weekly Statistics (21 June 2021 - 27 June 2021)

 

Average Focus

3.56 / 5

Average Progress / Session

3.46 / 5

[Raphael]

These metrics are a bit screwed. The way that I'm measuring my focus and progress is way too simplistic and dismisses the duration of the sessions.

[Raphael]

28 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 08:30 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 10:42 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ❌ Cold shower after waking up
• ✅ No social media until 7 PM
• ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Work Sessions:

• 07:20 PM - 07:53 PM
  • Did some verification, sent an email.
  • Duration: 33 minutes
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3/5

Deep Work Sessions:

• 10:06 AM - 10:48 AM
  • Did some testing.
  • Duration: 42 minutes
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 3/5
• 11:05 AM - 12:34 AM
  • I fixed the bugs related to the date picker and started to connect the interface to the API.
  • Duration: 1 hour 29 minutes
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3/5
• 01:55 PM - 02:34 PM
  • Did some improvements in connecting the interface with the Facebook publishing API.
  • Duration: 39 minutes
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 04:26 PM - 05:54 PM
  • The closer I'm getting to launch this app, the scarier it gets.
  • Duration: 1 hour 28 minutes
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 08:04 PM - 09:38 PM
  • I did some work on auto disabling certain features on the app and also managing publishing notifications.
  • Duration: 1 hour 34 minutes
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3/5

I'm going to keep the duration metric finally, but will not put a minimum objective. I want to be sure that I don't bullshit around without being obssessed about the time that I spend working.

• Total Work Duration: 5 hours 43 minutes, including 5 hours 10 minutes of Deep Work
• Average Focus: 3.58 / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: 3.16 / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 28, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

29 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 07:00 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 11:50 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ✅ Cold shower after waking up
• ❌ No social media until 7 PM
• ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Deep Work Sessions:

• 08:45 AM - 09:29 AM
  • I worked on my app, then got interrupted.
  • Duration: 44 minutes
  • Focus: 3.5/7
  • Progress: 4/5
• 09:42 PM - 10:25 PM
  • I continued the previous work. They are noises popping out of everywhere, this is pretty annoying to work in this kind of environment.
  • Duration: 43 minutes
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3/5
• 11:13 PM - 01:02 PM
  • I worked on handling file upload and progress. I distracted myself a bit.
  • Duration: 1 hour 49 minutes
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3/5
• 01:45 PM - 02:42 PM
  • I continued the progress on the file upload interface.
  • Duration: 57 minutes
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 3.5/5
• 07:12 PM - 08:47 PM
  • I did good progress on the integration of files.
  • Duration: 1 hour 35 minutes
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 4/5
• 08:59 PM - 09:51 PM
  • I'm currently getting some errors concerning file upload on Twitter. I was less focused during this session.
  • Duration: 52 minutes
  • Focus: 3/5
  • Progress: 2/5

I'm currently doing some testing on my waking up and going to bed hours. I'm trying to see how it feels when I follow the day-night cycle, rather than trying to wake up when it's still dark. For the moment, this is allowing me to automatically wake up without an alarm, which is great.

• Total Work Duration: 6 hours 40 minutes, including 6 hours 40 minutes of Deep Work
• Average Focus: 3.42 / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: 3.25 / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 29, 2021 by Raphael

[Raphael]

Simply beautiful.

 

[Raphael]

30 June 2021

• Wake Up Time: 09:00 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 10:55 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
• ✅ Stretching after waking up
• ❌ Cold shower after waking up
• ❌ No social media until 7 PM
• ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Work Sessions:

• 11:09 AM - 12:57 AM
  • Fixed a bug, did some testing, had an issue with git but fixed it.
  • Duration: 1 hour 48 minutes
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 1/5

Deep Work Sessions:

• 02:01 PM - 02:38 PM
  • I started doing some improvements on a Facebook related API.
  • Duration: 37 minutes
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 4/5
• 04:20 PM - 05:36 PM
  • I did some progress on the Facebook API improvements.
  • Duration: 1 hour 16 minutes
  • Focus: 3.5/5
  • Progress: 4/5
• 07:40 PM - 09:33 PM
  • Completed the improvement to the Facebook API, did a change to Instagram API, and dealt with an issue on github.
  • Duration: 1 hour 53 minutes
  • Focus: 3.75/5
  • Progress: 3/5

Didn't sleep of the entire night, which caused me to stay in bed pretty late. The day was overall difficult.

• Total Work Duration: 5 hours 43 minutes, including 3 hours 46 minutes of Deep Work
• Average Focus: 3.69 / 5 (objective at least 3.5 / 5)
• Average Progress / Session: 3 / 5 (objective at least 3/5)

Edited June 30, 2021 by Raphael