Thread by @gasca

Different work happens in different time horizons - long-term thinking can't happen in short-bursts.

I've been thinking of these as mental time zones 1/

Different mental time zones lend themselves to different types of thought -- the main determinant of a mental time zone is communication.

Communication synchronizes time zones. Communication speed determines time. 2/

Can't stop thinking of this since reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson amazon.com/dp/B0015DPXKI/… 3/

In Anathem "convents" have different time horizons: One-offs (communicate with secular world once a year), Tenners (talk with external world every 10 years) and Centenarias and Thousanders (100,1000yrs) (tl;dr: complicated book, let's leave it at that...) 4/

Different levels of thought happen at different levels of communication - different things matter based on the communication velocity (secular world with no limits is distracted; Tenners more focused; Thousanders are a whole other level) 5/

Time zones form based on how open the communication channels are - e.g., don't check your phone for a day -> more deliberate, open, reflective. But then check your phone (i.e., open the communication channels) and time slippage occurs 6/

Opening communication channels creates time slippage 7/

What does this mean for me? I've been trying to identity mental time zones consciously. Mind can't move between time zones suppely: you stay within one or another for a while (mind time zone jet lag) 8/

So for instance, you check your phone or Twitter and are in one time zone (the real-real-time, instant one), then you move to email and slack (another time horizon) and then family (another). When you unplug, you turn off that level of time 9/

Time zones are orders of magnitude apart:
1. Turbo (non-stop - e.g., twitter always open)
2. ""normal work day"" (open phone x15 mins or so)
3. ""focused"" (phone every few hours)
4. Quasi-sabbath (check phone 2-3x a day)
5. Sabbath (1x day)
6. Sabbath++ (e.g., 1x10 days) 10/

Vacations aren't vacations unless you fully switch mental time zones and the only way to do that is to cut off the communication channels - otherwise there is time zone synchrony 11/

Work on a team also happens at different levels of time (e.g., infra is another time zone than smaller features) - keeping communication channels separate is necessary to avoid time slippage 12/

And so forth... OK - back to Turbo :) /fin