My dual life.
Since 2018, I've been living a dual life.
I moved back home to Goa to join the family business. The nature of my work there is exactly as you'd expect of someone running a large offline-first organisation.
In other words, during the day – I'm a manager.
However, after sunset, I begin my day's second shift.
Location: The Internet.
I write a couple of newsletters, build web apps (like this one), contribute to a few online communities, attend courses, and sometimes, I even teach people stuff.
In other words, at night – I'm a maker.
As anyone with a tight schedule will instantly recognise – the lines between different activities are often blurry. Unintended overlaps are common.
And when there are no buffers, the slightest change causes chaos.
I pride myself at being a pretty good multitasker.
But since 2018, I've found myself frustrated by these unintended overlaps more than I expected. I was always busy, but I was getting very little done, especially in the latter half of the day.
Then I discovered Paul Graham's essay titled "Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule". And damn did it resonate.
He explains how the optimal schedule for managers involves dividing their days into blocks of meetings. Each slot is usually under an hour. For makers, on the other hand, hourly slots are no good. Creativity is all consuming, and at best, makers can optimally divide their day into two parts – the first half and the second. Any disturbance in the middle of either half renders the entire half useless.
Each schedule is optimal by itself. But sometimes in teams, they collide. That's when things get messy.
Unluckily for me, I'm a team unto myself.
I'm still trying to figure it out.
Read PG's essay here: http://paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html