Life Debt

From Wiki

Tech Debt is a commonly used term in the IT world to describe the accumulation of small things that need fixing that can accumulate over time and bring down the whole software system. Life Debt is like the Tech Debt of your life.

Small unfinished tasks, those things that cause you discomfort or spoil your mood, little things on your mind occupying mental space that can be better filled with more useful things. Even if you're the kind of person that follows GTD religiously with robust task lists for everything, hundreds of small tasks on your list can still be a lot of mental weight.

Paying Life Debt

A stitch in time saves nine

Since prevention is better than cure, the best way to avoid life debt is through maintenance. The thing about maintenance is that it's not glamorous or adventurous. it might even be undesirable. It is still worth doing it, since the costs of not doing it can be great over the long-term. We have experience with unmaintained vehicles breaking down. Investment in maintenance can prevent catastrophic engine failures in the future.

Do you have 2 minutes?

A great principle to adapt from GTD is the 2-minute-rule. If a task just takes 2 minutes of your time, it is not worth putting it on your task list and certainly not worth holding it in your mind. Just do it now.

It might not always be possible to develop the discipline to continuously do all 2-minute tasks that life throws at you. Hence, regular maintenance windows are required. Try a streak of 2-minute tasks chained one after another for a longer duration till your energy lasts. This can help clear piled up life debt. Burn through a lot of small but nagging tasks on your list using this approach.

Take dedicated days off to clear Life Debt

Not all Life Debt tasks can be done on weekends. In fact, accumulating too much to do over the weekends can lead to too much work on the weekend and no rest, which kind of ruins the weekend and leaves you stressed out for the next week. Ideally, most small tasks should be managed during the workweek itself. But, we might not always be disciplined enough to execute them. A dedicated day off to pay back some life debt is a good idea. Whenever you feel that the life debt it accumulating and needs more time than you can spare, take a day off. Do streaks of 2-minute tasks with bigger tasks wedged in between. You might not always finish up everything but the momentum will drive you to do more during the rest of the workweek. Plan for another day for the rest in the future.

Time Dilation

When we are working on things we like, time flies. It also applies the other way around. When we are doing chores that we'd rather not do, time expands.

It is also hard to realize that an unpleasant task might take only 2 minutes or less, because our perceived time is much longer. Tasks that might be completed in one pomodoro's time (usually 25 minutes) feel like they might take hours.

The only way out is measurement. If a task feels small, set a timer for 5 minutes and try to do it. It might end up being a 2-minute task. For bigger tasks, start with one pomodoro. If you really hate doing the task, tell yourself that you will only do it for the duration of one pomodoro and stop it immediately after. More often than not, you will complete it in much lesser time.

Mental Weight

Things that we don't want to do also weight heavier on our minds than those that we like to do.

GTD can help with this. Put your mental load down into a task list and assign some time to do it.