Since 2020 I've developed a frequent day routine of 'work' followed by 'non-work', which looks like this:

• work intensely until a certain time, often lunch, then 'digress' for the rest of the day;
• "no messaging or social media before lunch"
• "no computing after lunch"
• log points that occur to me during the day
• the next day, spend a short moment going through previous day's points, then start the cycle again.

Of course, many days can't be shaped like this, but I enjoy when it's possible and often really look forward to this kind of plan. I could do it every day, and somehow the repetition doesn't get boring; life also conveniently interrupts with variation.

I think it came about because until 2019 I was regularly spending unlimited hours in a day coding apps on iOS or the web, and, naturally, it started to cost my mind and body. So I started to seek ways to limit my computer time.

It's also a riff on my productivity trinity and 'writing without magic': allow time to work in your favour, enjoy the fruits of resting your mind from intense focus, and diversify ways of being.

My morning mind is sacred to me as it hasn't yet been bombarded by external distractions, so I often use it to make progress on important things and try to keep the world at bay until I'm ready; I usually feel at my highest capacity, very focused, and productive. I give my first self to whatever I feel called to do.

During the 'digress' part, I read, do nothing, take walks, listen to music or podcasts, call friends, focus on body things, hang out, run errands, correspond, cook, touch plants, etc… Ideas, improvements, and iterations come quite naturally because I'm not occupied with 'work'; it's like shower thoughts, but for the whole afternoon and evening. The goal is to ensure there's a process or modality happening different to "sitting and doing stuff on my screen".

I just note down whatever occurs to me, things like "fix typo", "contact them", "wash dishes", "lookup word", "clean shoes", "buy vegetables", "share cat video"; it's all captured quickly and without polish, just enough that my future self will understand. Then I get back to my digressions.

The next morning, whenever I'm ready to start, I skip notifications, social networks, emails, or any external communication that I can do later—"don't look at anything"—and start with what I captured the previous day. I dump it all somewhere, and try process everything without taking too long. Just grouping the mess of points into "what goes with what?" is helpful and a simple starting point if I lack clarity that day.

I try to distribute everything into other places where I collect related points, but similar to just capturing quickly, I don't stop to put it in the 'correct' part of those buckets: I just drop it at one end or the other and move on immediately; I will eventually sort it anyway whenever I end up doing something about a specific collection of points.

If there's something time-sensitive there, briefly scan for it and bump it to the top. Otherwise, go through linearly.

If there's something 'nice to have, but not practical right now', I throw it in my rabbithole list, where I can be revisit without pressure to 'get it done' or take any decisions.

It normally takes me under five to ten minutes to process everything. I mostly don't get too involved in any of the points and just function like a dispatch center putting things in a useful place as efficiently as possible. If something worthwhile takes a minute to complete, I might just do it instead of moving it, but generally I like making deliberate time to focus on specific things and letting the rest accumulate so that time works for me.

The goal is to maximize space for deep work on what feels meaningful and motivating.

Sometimes I even defer this review until after lunch so that my morning brain has more time to party.

It's very satisfying for me to record little thoughts today and trust that they will be seen at the right moment; to have space to be present, yet not miss details that could be useful later. I often don't feel overwhelmed because there's a simple process for dealing with whatever comes up, and it helps me get a sense for what's potent.

A larger aspiration here is to switch modes at healthy intervals: do focused work but avoid several hours or more of the same body posture, instead trying to alternate and stagger contrasting activities; ideally, I even look forward to break because it's a chance to let the previous thing ferment.

Lately I've found that it also gives me direction with bad things happening in the world, as the more I learn about what's broken, the more I want to simply move the needle and do something useful: this framework helps me focus on those things.

I hope that sharing my concept might give you some ideas but also act as a prompt to consider which ways of working would help you flourish. May we all have clearer paths forward.

My new memo app is a "notepad you can't edit" specifically built for this work/digress cycle.