Memorandum on Easy Task Harvest

I.

The easy task harvest begins before the hard task is acknowledged. This is its defining feature. If the hard task were acknowledged first, momentum might flow toward it. By not acknowledging it, the person creates a window in which minor tasks can be completed without the hard task counting against them.

The minor tasks are real tasks. They have been on the list. Completing them is not dishonest. It is merely strategically ordered in a way that no strategy produced.

II.

The workaround operates as follows. The person sits down to work. The hard task is available. The hard task is large and unclear in its middle sections. The person opens their email instead, not because email was the plan, but because email is completable.

Two emails answered. A calendar event confirmed. A Slack message acknowledged. A small notification cleared. The person has now done four things and the hard task has moved no further than when they sat down. The four completed things nonetheless create a sensation that resembles progress, which is distinct from progress but shares enough qualities with it to be briefly useful.

III.

A workaround is created for easy task harvest. The workaround is a list. Specifically, a list that separates the important task from the minor tasks so the minor tasks cannot be used as warm-up. The list is organized, labeled, and color-coded. It takes twenty-five minutes to construct.

The twenty-five minutes come from the time that was available for the important task.

The workaround has produced a second check designed to confirm the first one worked. The second check is the list review, which occurs before starting. The list review generates additional minor tasks. The cycle continues.

IV.

Easy task harvest may continue indefinitely once everyone knows how to work around it. Everyone knows how to work around it. Nobody volunteers to replace the habit because the habit is productive, technically.

The ordinary action now has a parallel administrative system built around easy task harvest. The administrative system is the most organized part of the person's output. It has been maintained with great care and is almost entirely documentation of reasons the important task has not started.

V.

The important task gets done eventually. It always does. This is the fact that makes easy task harvest feel sustainable, and also the fact that ensures it will recur.