Curious how others deal with this: if I focus on one vertical slice of a long project (e.g. some design problem), I become annoyed that everything else remains frozen for long periods; if I work on a horizontal slice (a few pieces at once), bulk progress is very slow. Any escape?
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The key question: What’s the most important thing I could be doing right now to make progress on the project?
Do that. Don’t worry about the parts that remain frozen. If you keep answering the question, eventually, their time will come.
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I really like this angle, Ken!
Sensing into why I hesitate to do this: I think it's because the scope/definition of my projects are often so contingent, continuously-negotiated. And so I feel (right or wrong) I need to pay attention to the rest to shape the scope/def'n over time
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Probably the right way to resolve that last issue is to commit to thinking carefully about the meta-level every N week(s) but to otherwise just do whatever's most important and to try not to relitigate the project's shape.
Could be summarized as 'mostly swim, but come up for air'? I've been wondering these things myself lately & the big thing that trips me up is when I'm transitioning from horizontal to vertical, since it really triggers a choice paralysis of which interlocking thing to do first.
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