Discipline Is Mostly Removing Decisions

Starting work can involve more decisions than the work itself seems to require. When should I begin? Which task first? Where is the file? Should I answer that message before settling down?

Each question is small. Together they leave plenty of room for starting to become tomorrow’s problem.

This is the part of discipline that interests me most: arranging the beginning so that it asks less of the mood I happen to be in. A fixed working time helps because the morning no longer needs a negotiation. A short list helps because choosing the task does not become a separate project. Keeping distractions out of easy reach removes a decision that would otherwise return every few minutes.

The arrangement can be modest. At the end of a session, write down the next action. Leave the relevant material easy to find. Decide what a short but useful session would contain, so that a difficult day does not have to choose between doing everything and doing nothing.

For programming, “work on the project” is a vague instruction. “Reproduce the error with this input” gives the next session a beginning. It does not solve the error, but it reduces the effort needed to make contact with it.

Too much preparation can create another obstacle. A routine that needs perfect quiet, a long free afternoon, and an elaborate sequence before any work counts will fail on many ordinary days. The useful structure is the one that makes the real task easier to reach.

There is still effort after the beginning. Routine does not remove the difficult paragraph or the unfamiliar concept. It reserves more of the available energy for them.

I used to picture discipline as winning an argument with myself. Now I am more interested in which parts of that argument can be settled before I am tired enough to reopen them.