How I Think
What actually happens in my head when I'm working. Maybe it'll help you honestly assess your own mental stack.
This isn't advice. It's observation.
Input
If you can do something now, do it now. If you put it off, it increases the chance that you don't do it. You want to blow the mind of a client? Fix their problem on the phone or in a meeting. Give them an iteration now. Hot potato.
I'm always evaluating what's coming in and trying to make the best choices I can, just like everyone else. Monitoring your cognitive load and getting rid of extraneous inputs and notifications is good for actually being productive. But don't focus on tasks like cleaning your inbox when you could be shipping. Focus on what is actually important instead of what is in front of you.
Less but better should be a mantra when you build. Instead of trying to add something, try to understand where the value lies. It's important to find focus enough to differentiate the signal from the noise.
Decisions
I like to ask myself if what I am so focused on right now actually matters. Will my kids remember that I delivered that presentation? I thought not.
I think it is more important to understand the difference between what you want and what you need. You will likely have to sacrifice something to get it. The old IT saying of pick 2: fast, cheap, good.
Spend time doing stuff that energizes you. Spend time with people who are fountains, not drains. Understand that doing hard things takes energy and is often not fun. Understand the difference between hard and worth it versus toxic and not worth it.
Execution
I multitask constantly. I'm not good at it. I'm called to do it due to the nature of my work. My BEST work comes when I am able to focus without distraction. I should know that and plan for it. Flow state and manic development sessions are a thing. Harness them instead of fighting them.
Time boxing can work, but it really only works for me if I understand the problem well enough to define it. For undefined and amorphous problems—the ones I am most expected to solve—it takes time. Sometimes that time is when I schedule it. Sometimes it is in the shower or while on a walk or while dancing or while driving. I'm always thinking about one of my puzzles. To try to completely walk away from it isn't how people actually work.
I tend to assess tasks using the Eisenhower Matrix. It helps me focus on important and not urgent. If I have too many important and urgent tasks I'm doing it wrong. I should delegate urgent and not important tasks, and just not do not important and not urgent tasks. AI can help A LOT here. This is a green field for automation.
Start before ready is important. It gets me to a product. It gets me to a tangible.
I try to understand my own strengths. If you want someone to help you understand something, to document it, to process flow it, to build something—I'm your guy. If you want a report run every morning at 9:30am and emailed to a group of people, hire someone or automate it. I'll get bored and wander off.
Recovery
Systems break, but we are more resilient than we think. I have a friend who was a dean of a major medical school who always said that people were well buffered systems.
Brain dumping is important. I journal and like it.
Circuit breakers for me are friends, reading, and dancing. Taking a walk is also good. Don't work until failure.
Don't continue to work when looping. Interrupt loops. Find clarity. Restart if needed.
I hope I have learned my lesson about making things that I then have to maintain. It is like collecting boat anchors around my neck and is one of the clearest examples of technical debt that I can think of. I can't do something else because I have to support those things I already built.
You probably don't need another tool.
You need to understand how you actually think and work. This is mine. Yours will look different. If these observations are useful to others, take them. If not, build your own. The goal is clarity, not conversion.