How I Transition Between Tasks

From Cadence Experiment to Cadence Clarity

I’ve been doing my best to share some of my tried and true Cadence Experiments with y’all from the start, but today I want to talk about this intentional practice that naturally grew out of first cadence experimenting and then cadence mapping. 

But before I jump into talking about the practice itself, let me first clarify what I mean by Cadence Experiment, Cadence Mapping, and Cadence Clarity. 

So what the heck are Cadence Experiments? They're those little practices I tinker with that I’ve posted about before. Examples are doing one thing per day, learning how to tend to your needs, tracking the moon, and working with the days of the week. 

But my formal definition of a Cadence Experiment is this: The practice of testing different approaches to time, energy, and focus to discover what aligns with your natural rhythm.

The practice of documenting and tracking the natural patterns that reveal themselves throughout a Cadence Experiment is what I call Cadence Mapping. 

And no, I don’t have some sort of lab notebook or system where I track the results of my Cadence Experiments. Most of that stuff lives in my journals, old planners, notes to self in my head, or post-it notes placed on strategic walls or mirrors around the house. 

I’m not out here trying to be a scientist. I still don’t understand chemistry and I never learned physics (my high school physics teacher told us the answers to questions on the test…during the test. RIP Mr. Madden). 

I’m just out here trying to understand myself better so that I can somewhat reliably know when I work best, rest best, create best, and socialize best. For example, one piece of Cadence Clarity I have is that I don’t ever take meetings on Mondays for any reason. I need that day to figure out what the heck is going on and sometimes quite literally figure out what planet I’m on. 

That kind of Cadence Clarity, or the understanding that emerges from knowing your rhythms well enough to make rhythm-aligned decisions about how you spend your time, is what I want to talk about today, specifically regarding transitioning between tasks during the day and week. 

Finding Power in a Weekly Focus

I don't know about you, but I've come to realize that I absolutely cannot work on multiple big projects in one week. It overwhelms me instantly and reduces me into a melting pile of helplessness on the floor and it often takes me a week, sometimes two, to reform myself.

When I started my one-thing-a-day cadence experiment, I noticed that switching from one big project on one day to another big project the next day still took a toll on my system. It felt like slow-motion whiplash. This led me to a crucial discovery: dedicating entire weeks to one big project (plus maybe a couple of unrelated small tasks) worked significantly better. Not only did I stop feeling like a pile of human garbage at the end of the week, but I found my brain could actually stay in flow with the work.

This works because our brains aren't naturally wired for constant context-switching. When I was still working in a law firm, I used to have trouble shifting from working on one case about a contract dispute to another about an intellectual property violation and wonder why (I had no clue I had ADHD).

Now, I know that I can't really go from writing a long blog think-piece to designing a course on contracts. I'm either writing about a certain subject that builds on itself all week OR I'm working on pieces of a course each day, but I'm not doing both of those things in the same week. 

How I Implement This Now

When I sit down on Mondays to think about my week, I think about which project I need to move forward to make the most impact in my work and what I need most in the rest of my life to feel nourished. If I had a bad week of working out, then I'll try to prioritize workouts. If I found myself scrambling for meals the week before, then I'll prioritize meal prep for the current week. Either way, I choose one big work project to focus on and one big personal project to focus on and let those things rule my week.

Here's a real example from this week:

• Work Focus: This blog, specifically getting it to "good enough" to launch and start sharing with the public. There are logistical things like tech integrations, website policies, and community guidelines to finish, plus continued blog post writing. I set the logistical things as the primary focus because they're harder on my brain, making blog posts secondary for when I need a break from logistics.
• Personal Focus: Prepping to receive a visiting friend, broken down into:
  • Food: Planning meals she'll enjoy, creating grocery lists, and prepping one food item per day starting 3 days before arrival
  • Sleeping arrangements: Organizing upstairs guest rooms
  • Outings: Blocking calendar time for activities.

Instead of forcing my brain to constantly switch contexts, I simplify my tasks so when I do need my brain to focus, it can return to the same topic instead of trying to orient itself to a new one. I've found it to be a huge energy saver, making both my work and personal projects flow more naturally.

Transitioning Between Activities During the Day

Let’s be real. As much as capitalism would like us to treat it like it is, work is not a constant. It’s not a thing we do all day. It’s not even a thing we do every day. It’s not a thing that we can sustainably do all the time nonstop without any breaks. 

When I still worked in a law firm, I was constantly racing against the clock of the billable hour and I often switched from work task to work task without a break because every break I took meant I’d have to spend more time trying to meet my billable hour target for the day. 

So there was no space for me to switch intentionally from one task to the next. I never stopped to consider whether I needed a break, where and how I wanted to work next, or what I should work on next. I’d just look at my to-do list and try to knock out the next thing. 

Now I have a different approach. I already like to start my day reading or journaling, but I also like to give my brain a break throughout the day. When I complete a task, I do one of several things based on whatever I need or desire at that moment:

• Lay down on the floor and stretch
• Lay down and take a nap (are you sensing a theme? lol)
• Do a short mobility routine to move my body
• Go for a walk
• Read a chapter of a book 
• Do a little cleaning
• Make food. 

Working transitions or bridges into my day between work tasks has been a balm to my brain and overall energy. It gives me a chance to reset, take my mind off of work, and just let my brain rest. Because it turns out our brains were not designed to be in constant output and computation mode. They need time to rest, do nothing, imagine, and wonder. Not just at night when the work day is done or when you go to sleep, but also throughout the day. 

Including these types of transitions in my workday has lowered my stress levels and made it much easier for me to access my creative energy throughout the day. 

How Daily Transitions Became a Regular Part of My Day

The best part about these daily transitions is that I don’t have to think about them anymore. I just do them automatically. If you’re a person who doesn’t struggle with incorporating rest into your day, then this may not seem like a big deal. But for someone whose job used to be directly tied to the time they could track and bill for work, taking time to rest during a workday is revolutionary. 

This isn’t something that came easily to me. I had to work at it. Through Cadence Experiments like tending to my needs, tracking the moon, and doing one thing per day, I taught my body that it was okay to live at a slower pace that was more supportive and nourishing to me. 

Over time, slowing down has not only become easier, it’s become my default. So I no longer have to track how moving slowly or how taking time to relax between work tasks feels. I don’t have to experiment with or be super diligent about creating spaciousness in my day because these natural transitions help me do it automatically. 

When I’m living in sync with my natural rhythms, this type of magic just happens. 

Join the Conversation

I'd love to hear about your rhythm discoveries:

• What natural transitions have you already built into your day without realizing it? (Maybe that morning coffee ritual or afternoon walk?)
• Which part of this resonated most - the weekly focus or the daily transitions?
• If you were to experiment with one transition practice this week, what would you try?
• For my fellow recovering hustle culture folks: what's your biggest challenge in allowing these kinds of transitions?

Share your thoughts in the comments - your experience might be exactly what someone else needs to hear to start their own cadence exploration.