June plan: Scheduled bursts and worthwhile habits

Last time I described my goal of combining two productivity regimes: drip and burst.

To recap, the hybrid approach has three levels:

1) pre-scheduled bursts of intense, focused and distraction-free work on my most important and difficult projects (regardless of urgency).

2) a limited number of high-yield low-cost daily habits performed intentionally and mindfully

3) batches (ideally 2+ hours) containing everything else

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Accountability is critical

I promise to my readers, that for the rest of June (and possibly beyond), I will do the following each week: 

1) I will post a calendar at the start of the week indicating my scheduled bursts and how I work around them.
2) I will post a calendar at the end of the week indicating successes and failures.
3) I will post a screenshot of Lift for daily habits that week.

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Orange indicates scheduled bursts of work on most important projects. I can work on those projects other times, but not in focused bursts (to avoid exhausting my mental energy).  Blue indicates other commitments. Everything else gets crammed into the white spaces.

Lift on iPhone for the past 2 weeks.

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Tier 1: Scheduled Bursts

1. Lab (most important project- 2 related experimental protocols I've never done before and will yield the missing data required for submission)
2. Literature review: 15 papers read in-depth, 30 skimmed, 100 abstracts. Aiming to fill in the gaps in my knowledge.

Rules: 

• Scheduling: Must schedule these in advance at the beginning of the week for at least 3 hours each. I treat these as commitments. These are non-negotiable (overrule other things that come up, like meetings). However, I will not overly fret about making an "ideal" schedule ahead of time. Perfectionism and over-planning are forms of procrastination.
• Distractions: I shut off my phone/Internet and isolate myself as best I can. If I give into ANY distraction, I must stop and mark it as a failure, and report it on this blog. If I decide an unexpected interruption is important and urgent enough to stop what I'm doing, it is not a failure, but I make a note of it to see if I can find a way to avoid it in the future.
• Focus: Use a timer for 60 continuous minutes (optional to do more on given day after a 15 minute break). Increase by 10 minutes after completing 10 successful sessions in a row.
• Visible Progress: Have something to show for each session. This can be in a summary in an idea notebook, an updated master project document, an updated manuscript, talking to my PI, prepping slides for lab meeting, etc
• Breaks: At least one day a week, I cannot work on my most important projects

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Tier 2: Worthwhile Habits

1. Check e-mail/FB/news/Feedly once a day
2. Write 30 minutes per day
3. Make good eye contact
4. Meditate
5. Do something I fear
6. Say "no" to one thing

Rules:

• Aim to do these everyday. Accomplish as many as possible early in the day
• Checking e-mail a single time is the most important and most difficult. For motivation, as soon as I check a 2nd time, I am barred from recording more habits for the day. At other times, Gmail is blocked from my computer, and Mailbox is put on the last icon screen of my phone. I do check "important" e-mail folder 1 extra time per day. It is also OK to open e-mail to obtain information necessary for a project, but getting distracted by unrelated e-mails constitutes failure