I am currently working on a project that calls for a combination of tasks. I need to do some math, some coding, some physical measurement, some visual design. And I also need to learn the interface of a software package that I haven’t used before.
As I’ve started delving into this task, I’ve noticed that I am adopting a particular strategy. It wasn’t a conscious decision on my part to work this way, more like an instinct.
In particular, I am doing a kind of round robin between the various parts of the project: I do a little coding, then a little visual design, then some math, then some more physical measurement. And then back to more coding.
What’s going on here, I’m pretty sure, is that I’m letting each task inform all the others. For example, after a certain amount of programming, I can understand the visual design problem better.
It’s kind of like how you eat an ice cream cone on a hot summer day. You take a bite from one side, and then a little off another part, gradually working your way all the way around the cone. The trick is to do it evenly, so you don’t end up with melted ice cream all over your hand.
I suspect that this general strategy generalizes to all sorts of things. But I also suspect that it’s not a cure-all. In order for it to work, you need to know, as you work your way around your particular ice cream cone, how big a bite to take.
And that’s something you can learn only from experience.