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I've always found this productivity idea weak. I might set out 1 hour a day to accomplish a task, but if my heart isn't in it, it's just an hour of low-quality work--I may as well have not done it at all or waited for an optimal time.

However, I do see how this could be useful for tasks which aren't creative or need much thinking. Say for example, brushing teeth after lunch.

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But at least you've done something. When you see it's not going well, you might stop early but it's still better than skipping it, because the next day, when you are ready, the stuff you were doing is one-day-fresh, not two-days-fresh. If you put it off until "an optimal time" you'll both make it easier to keep putting off and spend more time catching up to where you had previously been.

The grad student version of this advice, which I heard from several people and more or less followed, was "once you start your thesis, write every day, at least a sentence." It's good advice.

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