Workflow Discussion - pls halp

I'll bump this in DEV but I think you can probably dump this into aistudio.google.com as a question and see what it suggests, as a first step.

I've been self-employed and freelancing in the music and tech worlds for most of my career, so I'm quite familiar with the struggles of organizing a good workflow, schedule, and to-do list. I've read the usual books—Atomic Habits, The 4-Hour Workweek, etc., and while they were helpful, if I were to truly recommend something, it would be the books Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Even with all that, I don’t have any specific advice for your particular workflow for a couple of reasons:

1. Some of the things you're doing are parallel to what I plan on implementing soon (regular video posts and social music updates), so I'm sure I'll be running into similar bottlenecks.
2. I've learned that there is no perfect "one-size-fits-all" productivity or organizational hack, tool, or system and whatever does work for you needs to be flexible and revisited often.

What I can offer is some general advice that has been helpful for me, though it may or may not be for you. At the very least, perhaps it will offer another perspective.

Here are some notes to myself, really:

• No "one-size-fits-all" solution exists. What works for me might not work for you. Some people love having a super-organized, full, multi-colored calendar with tasks and sub-tasks. I am not one of those people, but I absolutely do rely on having a system with a to-do list and calendar app. My goal here is to keep these as minimal as possible and to internalize the process as much as I can. So, at first, I may have a super-detailed task list with sub-tasks, but hopefully, sooner rather than later, it just becomes a single four-hour task called "production" or something similar.

To get to that point:

• Be flexible with regular revisions and tweaks. The goal is to get things done, not to create the "perfect" productivity system. Be mindful about when and why you’re adding "Make To-Do List" to a to-do list.
• Use AI for assistance. I have totally done what @jess suggested. I once wrote out a lot of scattered goals, schedules, and ideas by hand on a tablet (but actual pen and paper and then a photo would work just as well) and threw it into AI, instructing it to make assumptions if it couldn't read my handwriting. It was surprisingly very helpful and took some very scattered ideas I had to the next level of organization. The reason for this is that I find writing ideas out by hand is incredibly helpful for processing them—I use a whiteboard sometimes, too (Another tip in itself).

And finally, some general things I've learned that I always remind myself of:

• Motivation happens AFTER you start. You don't need to be motivated before you start something. That's not how it works. Just start.
• Multitasking should be avoided at all costs (as much as possible). There is no such thing. The brain is actually switching between tasks, which puts a heavy cognitive load on you. Task switching itself is taxing, so be mindful of how many different types of tasks you cram into a day or session without rests.
• Breaks and rest are incredibly important. I cannot overstate this. Good sleep and breaks between work (especially with task switching) are crucial.

My personal favorite "tool" (that I came up with, as in I didn't read it somewhere—but it is in fact the oldest hack in existence!) is an hour-long sand timer. I use it to keep track of my work and often put my phone in the other room unless I need it for the task at hand. The sand timer is cool because it doesn't have an alarm. I will will glance at it and be surprised that it's barely moved (when I'm doing a task I don't enjoy) or that it's totally drained and I have no idea for how long (because I was engrossed). Either way, when the sand runs out, I take a break. Then I come back and turn it over. And there's just something cool about the basic, tangible nature of it that I like: it's just sand, falling because of gravity.