The heuristic does not pretend to be the best algorithm and does not guarantee success, but it will tell you how to act in a difficult situation. Heuristic methods for solving any problems.
Popular American author of articles on personality development and life management Steve Pavlina and his heuristic algorithms for solving any problems.
Heuristics are rules that help you solve problems. When the problem is very large or complex, the optimal solution is not easy to see right away. At the same time, heuristic methods help at least begin to solve the issue, even if the person does not yet have an idea of the full path from the beginning to the goal.
Let's say your goal is to climb to the top of a mountain. In this case, the following algorithm can be a heuristic: I go straight to the top until I find an insurmountable obstacle; if I found such an obstacle, then I have to go around it and then go straight to the top again. This is not the smartest decision, but it will surely lead to the achievement of the goal.
Heuristics do not pretend to be the best algorithm; they do not even guarantee success at all. But, at the same time, they are quite good at solving many types of problems. Their main strength is that they break the fear of a problem and allow you to start acting here and now. And as a person begins to act and delve into the subject area, non-heuristic solutions open up before him, which he could not notice or not know before. Thus, you can make several iterations of "intuition-logic" and the goal will be achieved. By and large, many problems are solved in this way: at the starting point, the person did not know anything at all and put forward some intuitive simple theory, checked it, found jambs, received fresh knowledge, corrected the direction and began a new round. This is especially applicable to the creative process, such as software development. Often, you don't even know what exactly you want to create, but you still start to create.
2. Daily goals. Without a clear focus on goals, it’s very easy to waste your day being distracted by unnecessary things. Set goals for every day. Decide what needs to be done, then do it.
3. Worst first. In order to meet the deadline, it is better to do the most difficult tasks right in the morning, without putting them off until the evening. Plus, this morning's victory will set a positive tone for the whole day.
4. Rush hours. Identify the periods of time when you work best and plan the most important and difficult tasks for this particular time. Do all the little things the rest of the time.
5. Continuous zones. Find a time (hours) during which no one and nothing will bother or distract you. It is at such a time that it is easiest to concentrate on work and have time to do a lot. Do all the unimportant tasks the rest of the time.
7. Timeboxing. Steve's term, with which he explains the following technique: if you have a complete piper with the deadlines for the project, break the task into pieces and assign a strict time limit to each piece. Make the most during this time, forget all the chips that you did not have time to fasten.
8. Batch processing. Pack several homogeneous tasks (phone calls, for example) in one period of time and solve them in one fell swoop.
9. Early bird. Get up at five in the morning and do a good job before eight o'clock: you can do most of the work before many people get out of bed.
10. Peace and quiet. Turn off Wi-Fi on your laptop, put away your interrupting gadgets and go to a quiet place where no one will bother you: the library, the park, your backyard.
11. Temp. Constantly, at least a little bit, raise the bar: type faster, speak faster, read faster, do faster. Come home soon.
12. Create comfort. Protect yourself from stress by arranging your workplace. Make it nice, nice, cozy and clean.
13. Work plan. Make clear written plans and goals, even for calls. It helps a lot to focus.
15. The guns are out! Forget about postponements - get the job done as soon as you planned it.
16. Man-minute. Once you have received information for making a decision, set yourself a timer for 60 seconds, during which you will weigh the pros and cons and make the final decision. Made a decision - immediately launch it.
17. Deadline. Set a clear deadline for each task and keep it in mind to stay on the right track.
18. Promise. Tell your loved ones about your intentions and they will help you with advice, reminders or something else.
19. Punctuality. Whatever happens - do everything on time. Come to meetings a little early.
20. Read in between. Fill in all periods of downtime with reading: while coffee is being brewed in a cafe, while waiting for transport, until a friend comes to a meeting. If you are a man, you can read even while shaving (it is better to use an electric razor): it turns out 365 articles a year!
21. Resonance. Imagine the future when the goal is fulfilled. Imagine yourself in this situation. Believe it in your mind and it will become reality.
22. Nice prizes. Reward yourself often for completing your goals: go to the movies, sign up for a massage, or spend the day at an amusement park.
24. Continuity. At the end of your working day, define the task that you will solve tomorrow first of all, prepare materials for it. That way, the next morning you can get down to business immediately.
25. Slash! Break down large projects into subprojects and focus on each one separately.
26. Single-tasking. When you start solving a problem, keep working on it until it is 100% complete. Don't switch between tasks in the middle of the road. Distracting questions - put it aside.
27. Add randomness. Take a random piece of the project and complete it, pay a random bill from the whole heap, make one random call from the planned ones, write the 42nd page of the book.
28. Insanely bad. Conquer your perfectionism by completing a task in a disgusting manner, as if you know you won't have to share the result with anyone. Write a blog post about the taste of salt, design a completely dysfunctional website, or create a business plan that guarantees bankruptcy for a year. With a really crappy draft, there's nowhere to go but up.
29.30 days. Create a habit or quality that you want to form and maintain for the next 30 days. Temporary commitments are easier to comply with than permanent commitments.
31. Cross-pollination. Sign up for a martial arts section, start blogging, become a member of a self-development club. Often times, you will be able to find ideas in one area that will allow you to make a breakthrough in another.
32. Intuition. Follow your inner voice. Perhaps he is right.
33. Optimization. Find the algorithms you use most often, write them down on a piece of paper, and figure out ways to improve them. Then implement and test new algorithms. It often happens that we do not see obvious things until we look at them through a microscope.
Photo: Michael Benatar flickr.com/benatar
