Okay, so I wanted to share something I tried out recently, something connected to this name I kept hearing: Ian O. Cameron. Wasn’t sure what to expect, honestly, but you know me, always tinkering, always trying stuff out.
Getting Started
First off, I stumbled across some discussion mentioning his approaches. Sounded kinda different, maybe a bit theoretical, but one specific idea caught my eye. It was about structuring daily tasks, sort of a specific flow he advocated. Seemed logical enough on paper, so I thought, why not? Let’s give it a whirl in my own routine.
So, Monday morning, bright and early, I decided this was the week. Grabbed my coffee, sat down, and tried to map out my day exactly like the method suggested. It involved breaking things down into really specific time blocks and sequencing them in a way that was supposed to build momentum. Felt a bit rigid from the get-go, but I pushed through.
The Process – Trying It Out
The first couple of hours were… interesting. I had my list, my blocks. Tried sticking to it religiously. Task A, then B, then a specific type of break, then Task C.
- Had to keep checking the clock.
- Felt like I was managing the schedule more than doing the work sometimes.
- Got interrupted by a call – threw the whole sequence off.
Tried to get back on track, but it felt like swimming upstream. Spent a good chunk of time Tuesday trying to refine the ‘system’ for myself. Used a different notepad, tried setting timers. Still felt clunky. Like wearing shoes that were technically the right size but just didn’t fit right, you know?
By Wednesday, I was already feeling the strain. The rigidity was the main problem. Real life just isn’t that predictable. A quick question from a colleague, an unexpected email needing an urgent reply – these things messed up the whole structure Cameron’s idea seemed built on.
Hitting a Wall
Thursday was pretty much the same story. I found myself spending more mental energy trying to follow the method than actually focusing on the quality of the work I was producing. It was becoming counterproductive. I even started jotting down notes about why it wasn’t working for me, which, ironically, wasn’t part of the original plan!
The main issues I ran into:
- Too inflexible for real-world interruptions.
- Created more overhead in planning and tracking than it saved.
- Didn’t really account for tasks of varying complexity or creative work that doesn’t fit neat time boxes.
Wrapping It Up
Came Friday, I basically ditched it halfway through the morning. Just went back to my usual, more fluid way of working. Felt like a weight lifted, honestly. I could prioritize on the fly, deal with things as they came up, without feeling guilty about messing up some perfect schedule.
So, my little experiment with this Ian O. Cameron idea? Didn’t quite pan out for me. Maybe it works for some folks, perhaps in different types of jobs or environments. But for my day-to-day, it was just too much structure, too little flexibility. It was a good reminder, though: sometimes the tried-and-true, simpler methods are simple for a reason. They just work better when things get messy. Learned something, just not what I expected.
