Show Notes
In the tenth episode of Blueprints for Life, Nicole Cutler and Peter C. Hayward dig into batching: grouping similar tasks so you pay the cost of starting and stopping once instead of ten times. They cover flow state, why a dishwasher is a batching machine, emailing on Mondays, queueing posts and books so a system does the regular releasing, overstocking the unfun things (clothes, dishes) so laundry can wait, a game-design cruise as a three-day batch, the limits of batching (friendship, sleep, fatigue), and why removing roadblocks between idea and execution makes you more productive. Plus follow-up on what a "giraffe person" is (and isn't), and a Rules Brain Corner about misremembering movie scenes.
Chapters 0:00 Intro and follow-up (giraffe people, "name three people you please") 3:47 Rules Brain Corner: the Ted Lasso video essay and false memories 5:36 What is batching, and why we now record two episodes a session 8:00 Flow state: laundry, prototyping, video games and social media 10:10 What we batch: dishes, social media, Patreon writing, scheduled releases 14:32 The Four Hour Work Week and emailing on Mondays 15:42 Short-term memory, Wave bookkeeping and why scale makes things cheaper 18:55 Handymen, assistants and the 32-hour work week 23:00 Overstocking clothes and dishes; "you can, but you won't, so you can't" 24:46 Batching careers, and the game-design cruise 29:47 Waiting mode, errands and consultants 31:09 The shared-car gas tank story 33:01 What doesn't batch: friendship, sleep, burnout 36:20 Meal prep 39:11 What to batch (and what not to) is personal 39:28 What's on our desks: LongPack dice and Heckadeck 41:26 Removing roadblocks: prototyping tools and fast tests 44:58 Obligations vs. working on what excites you 47:00 Quote of the day: Bojack Horseman
Links What is a Giraffe Person? (episode 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bglnulOTqHA How to be a Giraffe Person (episode 3): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uuc5-gdTwk Rules Brain (earlier episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXAuOrC9uhg Scarcity Mode (earlier episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KTtxjGp_nI Fun Problems (Peter's previous podcast): https://funproblems.podbean.com/ Critter Kitchen: https://cardboardalchemy.com/critter-kitchen/ Heckadeck: https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/heckadeck Beasts by Clarence Simpson: https://pandasaurusgames.com/products/beasts LongPack dice: https://www.longpackdice.com/ The 32-hour workweek proposal: https://takano.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/rep-takano-sen-sanders-reintroduce-32-hour-workweek-act Peter's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@peterchayward Peter's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PeterCHayward Peter's Ted Lasso video essay, "Ted Lasso was Perfect. What happened?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JawSzLhKhgw The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss: https://tim.blog/books/ TickTick (daily habit list): https://ticktick.com Monarch (personal finance): https://www.monarchmoney.com Wave (small-business accounting): https://www.waveapps.com BoJack Horseman: https://www.netflix.com/title/70300800
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Question for us? Email [email protected]
Support the show: https://patreon.com/peterchayward
Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/BM3qDHf9FU
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Please note that any sales made through the above links will reward us a small commission, at no extra cost for you. So, uh, buy everything we linked to. Multiple times.
More from Blueprints for Life
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