The Importance of Slack
Tags: career, startup
Published: 2023-11-26 21:26:01

View a tl;dr on [Substack](https://open.substack.com/pub/cmdfang/p/the-importance-of-slack?r=2upx1p&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web).

Traditional productivity advice attempts to optimize for amount of work done, with the goal of:

- Increasing the number of work blocks in our schedule
- Increasing the number of to-do items you accomplish in a day
- Decreasing idle time

Idle time, or “slack”, is often viewed as wasted time. Productivity gurus recommend carefully planning out your day in rigid blocks. This applies not just to your workday, but also your personal life.

I recall one extreme example, where a productivity Youtuber mentioned that he schedules weekly date night on his Google Calendar (a few hours on a Thursday, if you’re curious).

This is absolutely ridiculous. We need slack in our lives - not just for the sake of sanity, but for the sake of sustainable productivity.

Granted, I’m not perfectly shielded from the urge to set a rigid timetable. I have always been one of routine, aiming to optimize everything I do. But more recently, I’ve been forcing myself to increase slack in both my work and personal lives. I have found that having more idle time and less rigidity actually increases productivity and greatly boosts mental well-being.

When you live by a rigid schedule, your mind is focused on satisfying self-imposed time constraints as opposed to being immersed in the present task. This creates a persistent anxiety about living your day as it was planned on your calendar. Small inconveniences then end up creating large problems. A simple 5 minute delay can wreck your schedule and leave you feeling frustrated and irritable.

Rigidity and lack of slack works extremely well provided _nothing goes wrong_. But the chances of nothing going wrong is slim to none. The world is uncertain and we cannot pretend that we can fully shape our future through back-to-back blocks on a calendar.

So, what’s the alternative? My way of life is far from perfect, but here are some things that I’ve implemented.

**#1: Build a priority list of tasks to start the day**

This is really no different from traditional productivity advice. My day falls apart if I don’t begin with intention. I create a list of everything I need to do for a given day and force-rank by priority. I try to categorize my to-do list into three buckets:

- **Must do:** this needs to be done today, no exceptions.
- **Should do:** it would be ideal if I could tick this off, but it’s not the end of the world if it isn’t done.
- **Do if able:** low priority tasks that I can pick off if I have the time and energy.

I’ve found that the majority of tasks end up in the “should do” pile. We often stress ourselves out by creating impractical self-imposed deadlines, but few tasks are as urgent as we think they are.

**#2: Intend on productivity, but avoid commitment**

Introducing slack is by no means the same as introducing laziness. I still aim to accomplish as much as I can within a given day, but I am no longer a slave to my schedule or my to-do list. Of course, scheduled meetings and appointments are unavoidably rigid, but all other hours of the day remain flexible.

My mission for a given day is to:

- Finish everything in the “must do” list
- Make as much progress as possible on “should do” items and complete “do if able” items if the time allows
- Embrace the spontaneity and uncertainty that is inherent to life

I’ve stopped committing to finishing tasks that are not absolutely critical, but this does not mean that I view them as any less important. This means that I’m better able to mentally handle the normal disruptions of life. I’ve found that this shift in mindset has freed up mental bandwidth, making me _more_ productive than I was before.

**#3: Embrace incompleteness**

I used to view each incomplete task as a failure, but I’ve come to realize that this is irrational given that:

- More often than not, the task deadlines are self-imposed
- The day is uncertain, and setbacks are unavoidable
- The length of my to-do list is influenced by external, uncontrollable factors

My new perspective is:

- If I’ve completed everything that I “must do,” then my day was a success
- It’s absolutely okay to end the day with incomplete tasks
- These tasks form the basis of my priority list for the following day, where I repeat the cycle from item #1 (creating a new priority list)

While it might seem easy to implement a “lazier” lifestyle, I found it extremely difficult to detach from my natural impulse to live a highly structured and fast-paced life. I’ve been practising these 3 principles over the past year, yet I still suffer periodically from “incomplete task anxiety.”

Compared to a year ago, however, I’ve found that I’m much better at dealing with the natural unexpectedness of daily life. I’m happier, more carefree, and a better person to others. And the craziest thing? I’m more productive than ever.