The author seems to be suggesting that people are spending time on routine tasks that are somehow not mandatory. All routine tasks are mandatory. That's why they become routine, become a part of a person's routine, and have the highest possible priority. Most of them relate to survival and hygiene because we have not yet escaped biology. Others are things like filing taxes which are made mandatory by our society.<p>What is the author suggesting people do? Be wealthy enough to pay someone else to take care of those tasks when possible? Suffer by leaving those tasks un-done, or done to a less than satisfactory level? What tasks exactly is the author de-prioritizing?
> The answer is because it's easier to attend to something that has a deadline, than to do something limitless and unstructured. It can also be more daunting to attend to the things we feel confident doing, than to the things we are unsure about.<p>This is very similar to John Cleese’s lecture on creativity -<p>“Because, as we all know, it's easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking.<p>And it's also easier to do little things we know we can do, than to start on big things that we're not so sure about.”<p>It’s a good talk if you’ve never seen it - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5oIIPO62g" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5oIIPO62g</a>
For me, its the anxiety of having "must-do" tasks build up. Although I love spending time exploring and playing with new things, I also like the feeling of having an empty work queue. Or, conversely, I hate the feeling of having a lot of backlogged tasks.<p>I've always been a proponent of removing people from ops when they work on a project, so they can truly focus on creation, design and exploration.
They're easier.<p>I tried to get rid of scrolling through social media, and it led me to do more chores and training.<p>My flat is clean and I get fitter, but I didn't read more books of finish more projects.<p>These routines don't require much thinking, so they're as easy as scrolling and end up to be the go-to tasks I do when I want to avoid wasting time on my smartphone.<p>But it would be fantastic if I could frame more productive work in a way that makes them easier. I just don't know how...
Interesting. I would say I am an unusually creative person, and the one consistency is that I ignore routine tasks. I let the dishes pile up, I just throw my socks on the floor, etc. I am generally a bit messy and I literally procrastinate every possible routine thing and it gives me lots of time to actually create. Then when I'm in a slump I just do all that routine stuff.
Another theory on why routine tasks get prioritized over creative is simply the mental load associated with the routine tasks “spills over” into creative idea times.<p>What I mean is that, routine task can be mentally laborious - with little motivation to do them other than they fact they are mandatory or needed. Once the motivation to do this task is used, the motivation to do the creative task is no longer there because it was spent on the routine.<p>It’s seems related to what we’re trying to build (<a href="https://doubleapp.xyz" rel="nofollow">https://doubleapp.xyz</a> ), where we want to provide a way to channel motivation from accountability so it’s not all on you to muster the motivation do everything.
> It can also be more daunting to attend to the things we feel confident doing, than to the things we are unsure about.<p>Something got swapped here, I think.
Routine tasks are, as others have commented, essential to pay the bills. And they come with a deadline, because someone out there is expecting the task to be done--whether it's the bills you need to pay, or a report you need to prepare for your boss. So logically, if the key difference between a routine task and a creative task is the lack of deadline and structure, wouldn't it make sense to have people involved for your creative projects too? So collaborative creative projects are likely to get done, while solo creative projects will probably run slower.