Six types of failure

My dad has to take antibiotics every 8 hours for the next few weeks, so I’m keeping that same schedule as a backup so he doesn’t oversleep. Today I woke up early and when the alarm went off I dismissed it, forgetting that I was supposed to check on my dad.

Thankfully he woke up on his own.

This reminds me how easy it is to lose focus on important tasks. In this case I forgot that my alarm was set for a specific reason because I was already engaged in another task and I slipped into the habit of dismissing my alarm.

It wasn’t until I noticed the sun was up that I remembered to check on my dad.

When I fail to follow through on a commitment, I often ask myself “at which stage did I fail?” Today, I failed because of task blindness. It wasn’t until the context cue of “it’s morning” that I remembered what I needed to do.

So far I’ve identified six main reasons why I fail.

Initiating a Task (Affordances)

• Total Task Blindness: A whole day goes by and I completely forgot to do the task. The radar did not blip. I didn’t have a physiological response, environmental cue, context trigger, or open loop that reminded me to start the task. In which case, I need to find some way of strengthening my perception of the affordance through cues, triggers, and open loops.
• Dismissal of a Remembered Task: I remembered to do the task but I pushed it aside and never came back to it. My compulsion to do the task was unable to overcome my resistance. Or I made some sort of decision to procrastinate the task. Maybe the timing was off, or I let my emotional discomfort undermine my commitment. Most likely I need to raise awareness of the task’s importance so I’m less likely to dismiss it.

Completing a Task (Sessions)

• Distraction from an Ongoing Task: Once a task is started, I need to keep working on it until complete. For some tasks I might need to define what the end point will be for a session. Here my goal is to hit publish which only unlocks after I type 100 words. Having that session goal helps me remember if I do get distracted from the task, I need to come back.
• Poor Task Performance: Even if I’m doing something, it’s possible I’m doing the wrong something. Or I just haven’t learned how to perform the task well. I’m doing the work, but the work is all wrong. This can lead to frustration which saps my ability to engage with the task. I need to evaluate my performance and decide how I can improve. It might be helpful to consult an expert for guidance.

Chaining Tasks (Projects)

• Undefined Tasks: I need to break down projects into specific tasks or they’re dreams not plans. Sometimes the plan is to just do one thing over and over again until it’s done, but often there are a variety of tasks that need to be completed. It’s possible to stall when switching to a new phase of a project simply because the next task is undefined.
• Task Over-Orientation: I’m lost in short-term planning. There are four types of planning: present-oriented, task-oriented, objective-oriented, and domain and direction planning. All types of planning have their place, but people tend to specialize in one type. A present-oriented or task-oriented planner functions better in the short term and may forget to set long-term objectives or directions, i.e. shipping a product. I need to define what being done looks like. I may need to set a scheduled action to plan as a task to be done.