Independence Day... for Bad Work Habits?

English Forum Beyond the task
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Happy Friday, everyone! :tada:

For our friends in the US, it’s Independence Day today, which prompts today’s TGIF post. We all crave independence from those sneaky productivity killers that somehow always find their way into our workweek.

We’ve all been there: drowning in a sea of “urgent” tasks, getting trapped in meeting marathons, or falling into the black hole of perfectionism where nothing ever feels “done enough.” But what if this weekend, we declared our own independence from the work habits that hold us back?

So here’s the question: What work habit are you ready to declare independence from?

  • :ballot_box_with_ballot: Death by a thousand meetings - “I hereby declare independence from back-to-back meetings that could have been emails!”
  • :check_box_with_check: Inbox tyranny - “I declare freedom from checking my Asana inbox every 3 minutes and letting my inbox rule my day!”
  • :alarm_clock: Procrastination nation - “I’m breaking free from the ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ cycle that keeps important tasks in limbo!”
  • :bullseye: Perfectionism prison - “I declare independence from the need to make everything perfect before I can call it done!”
  • :counterclockwise_arrows_button: Multitasking madness - “I’m liberating myself from trying to do seventeen things at once and doing none of them well!”
  • :high_voltage: Burnout boulevard - “I declare independence from the ‘always on’ mentality and embrace the power of actual breaks!”
0 voters

Drop a comment below and tell us more! What’s your work management declaration of independence? Maybe you’ve already broken free from a bad work habit. Share your success story! Or if you’re still working on it, we’re here to cheer you on.

That’s all from me today, friends! Have a great weekend! :slight_smile:

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Nice post as always, @Vanessa_N!

I adopted this strategy a few years ago that’s worked for me to correct some bad work habits.

In my Asana My Tasks I don’t have a “Today” section.

Instead, I use a “Today?” section so I don’t feel bad when I overload it.

Above it, I have a “Now” section with my highest-priority tasks and appointments, in order.

Thanks,

Larry

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I’m curious, what percentage of the time you would say it ends up “overloaded”? And how would you define that state?

(asking for a friend…)

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Great questions! This is a one-user-only workflow, so I take a lot of liberties, and actually use this for a couple types of things. I guess “overloaded” is often the wrong word. Overall, these are things I want to try to do today but don’t have to. And I actually keep a permanent “—” divider task in this section because it’s the destination for auto task promotion tasks due today, so this insures they don’t commingle with the rest of my tasks there. So that should answer your “define the state” question.

Re your other question, perhaps a third of the time the section is empty, and the rest of the time there might be a few tasks that hover there for a couple or more days until they’re done.

Everyone has unique systems, though I bet there’s overlap if you ignore what people call their sections and consider usage alone.

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