I have always been a fan of standard work. It’s where you schedule recurring activities to make sure the important work actually gets done. Shutting off your email and only checking it 2–3 times a day is a simple example.
Many people resist this. They want some system to remind them to do things. They want it done for them—email reminders, notifications, something external keeping them on track. Personally, I don’t want more emails, and I want to be in control of when I deal with things. I don’t want them popping up at random times.
That approach puts the system in control of your time. It shifts you toward an external locus of control—something else deciding when you act instead of you deciding. It removes responsibility from the individual and adds overhead—you have to set up and maintain notifications (which is often harder than it should be).
It also adds a surprising amount of mental load. Every notification is a decision point: do I act now or later? Over time, that constant decision-making wears you down. Research from Roy Baumeister and others has shown how quickly decision fatigue sets in. Standard work removes those decisions entirely—you’ve already decided when the work gets done.
It’s also better than constantly checking things. That kind of behavior gets neurotic fast. If you look at how people actually work, this shows up everywhere—people spending their day bouncing between inboxes and Slack, reacting to whatever comes in, and then wondering why nothing meaningful got done. Standard work reduces that noise. It makes things less stressful and puts you back in control.
If you want to start integrating standard work into your day, begin by defining what actually matters. Then schedule recurring times to act on it. It could be a weekly block to list your accomplishments so you’re ready for your next review. It could be checking email 2–3 times per day. It could be a standing meeting with a project team every other week to keep progress moving.