Advice about working / not working in 'spare hours'

[rd5555]

For the next 4-6 weeks, I’m putting all of my focus into a personal development project that is really important to me, so i'll be working in time blocks throughout the day, sitting down at my desk doing deliberate practice. 

I’m always conflicted on whether I should spend any spare time I have outside of my normal time blocks doing extra contemplating about my project and trying to come up with solutions to the problems, like when i've got an hour to kill on the train for example, or whether it’s best to strictly work in my time blocks and then any time outside of those time blocks I should relax.

On one hand: it’s so important to me that I do everything I can over the next 4-6 weeks to hopefully succeed in this project, so I’m wondering if spending these spare hours contemplating on the project could be a good idea.

On the other hand: these spare hours I spend on the train contemplating won’t be the same quality as if I’m in my room doing the work, which isn’t a problem itself, since this time was only an added bonus anyway, so i'm technically not losing out on anything even if I achieve little during these spare hours, but the issue i'm really wondering about is whether spending these spare hours in this grey zone where I’m kinda doing work but it's low grade work, will just lead to frustration, and actually develop limiting beliefs because i'll be trying to focus but it's not gonna be as successful as sitting down at my desk to focus, i'm not sure if that's going to create limiting beliefs so that when I sit down to do my focused work at my desk, i've got all these experiences of struggling to contemplate and figure out answers on the train?

 

What do you guys think?

Just to reiterate, this project is really important to me, so I do have that mindset of 'i wanna go all out on this thing, and give it everything' but at the same time, I don't want to cause any potential limiting beliefs in the pursuit of trying to get as much done as possible.

 

[mmKay]

Rest and relaxation can actually enhance your creativity and problem-solving skills, making your focused sessions more productive. Fun and time off are serious business if you want to maintain productivity for the long term.

It's up to you if you want to experiment and push yourself to see what your limits are, but it's not a sustainable lifelong plan.

Take into consideration that your physical body and mind have needs. Your emotional needs also dictate your behavior. You have only so much focus and willpower, so learning coping strategies is important. It would be wise to respect and plan for meeting these needs in a deliberate way.

These needs include movement and exercise, resting your eyes, spending time in nature, having fun and laughing, entertaining yourself, socializing, addressing sexual needs, or simply disconnecting and doing nothing in particular. These needs are common to all of us, but the degree to which one requires them depends on the individual.

I'd personally recommend a healthy sprint and a personal experiment to understand your own limits, along with implementing the Pareto principle:

What 20% of your work efforts produce 80% of the results? Focus on spending most of your time on that.

You could also do Pomodoro cycles of 20 min work 5 min rest before a larger break. Find out what works for you and adapt.

Then again, I don't know the nature of your work, so if you share more details, maybe we could explore more tailored
ideas.

How is it going so far?

Edited August 31 by mmKay

[rd5555]

@mmKay thank you, I really liked your answer and I fully agree. As i've been exploring this, i've realised that it's better for me to just work during my dedicated hours, and not try to work during the spare hours.

With the caveat that there are some times when i'm intrinsically able to work in spare hours, but it comes very naturally.

I've become a big believer in doing things that come very naturally in that moment, it could be tidying room, wriitng emails, working on business, introspection etc.
What I often find in my life is, if i'm having a moment where i'm introspecting on something and great ideas are coming to me, it's important to do it in that moment. If I take a shower and then try to do that introspection 20 minutes later, my mind isn't in that same zone it was in before.