Buildcrastination and the Parallel Work Trap

Moments ago, I pulled out a blue expo whiteboard marker, and wrote up a nice tidy todo list on my 4’ x 6’ whiteboard. A tiny section of an otherwise large and chaotic sea of scribbles. All the things I must get done today.

I do this most days. But lately, completion rates have tanked.

It is just too damn easy to be productive. With tools like Claude Code, I’m never more than a few minutes before an idea or feature or improvement comes to life. As quick as I can think it, I can get started on it, and feel like I’m 80% there.

But then, often enough, I end up with a handful of giant PRs, unclear GTM or “how is my customer actually going to discover this value” strategy, and the unsexy items on my todo list are still sitting there.

How did this happen? Well, let’s just call it buildcrastination.

I have made a habit of always returning to that familiar Claude “chime” when it’s done a task — and I’ve become more intentional about declaring which zed window is the one that is housing my most important Claude task.

But the strategic reach out, the updating the TOS, the proactive customer outreach — often times, those things require my attention, my pen, and my time more than that next feature or fix. The hard part now is doing the thing Claude can’t do for you.

Anyways, I’m reminded about John Zeratsky’s “One Big Thing” method (from Make Time). I’m not actually sure if my version of it has morphed, but the idea I have retained is simple; write down the one big thing you must accomplish today. You can jot down a few other things that are nice to have, but the framing is, if I don’t get anything else done, what MUST I get done? What will I be stressed about if I don’t get done? Out of all the task lists and strategies for efficiency I’ve gone through, this one has stuck with me through thick and thin. Simple, analog, easy to measure, and it works.

And I’m writing this, which is perhaps write-crastination, to reinforce and remember this. Now… back to setting up a laptop for a new hire 😊