# Why it pays to name everything that eats your day [Home](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en) › [Study](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/study) › [Articles](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/study/articles) author: [Axel Jedlitschka](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/about) published: 2026-10-13 updated: 2026-10-13 language: en reading time: 5 min topic: Personal source booklet: [Where the Day Went](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/shop/introduction/personal-order-time) The feeling that the day was crazy gives you nothing to work with. The name of a type that keeps recurring gives you a source you can disconnect. When the day was crazy, that feeling does not tell you what to fix. According to the source, there is a list of types that increase needless traffic, and each has a name. Once you can name what happened to you, you have a source you can disconnect, instead of a result you have to manage. ## A feeling is not a diagnosis Nearly everyone says at the end of a heavy day that it was crazy. That describes the feeling accurately and gives you nothing to do tomorrow. Compare it with this: the day was heavy because four messages arrived that were never yours, and twice you went back to the same job because you had never made a decision. The second sentence is longer, and it holds two things you can deal with. It is also why planning, blocking hours and ranking priorities do not solve this. They all concern how much time you have. The list concerns what eats it. **Developed traffic** is any work that did not need to happen. Messages that were never yours and going back to the same job are two examples, and each has its own name on the list. Suppose an owner writes down, in his own words, what got in his way over a stretch of time. He ends up with a long list of complaints, and not one of them leads to an action. When he matches each complaint to a type, most of them fall into just three. He disconnects one of the three and saves four hours a week. That saving came from removing a source, and nobody got better at managing time. ## A list built from experience The source presents the list as a summary of items that increase traffic, and says it rests on years of experience with the subject. The original runs to fifty-one types. Some belong to the world the material comes from and have nothing to do with a small business, so the booklet brings in the ones that do. The advantage of a list over a feeling is fixed names. When something bothers you, you do not need to invent a new description each time. Recognizing it is enough. Several of the names will sound familiar at once: - **Slow line**: a delayed reply produces a second enquiry about the same matter. - **Unclear order**: uncertainty at the start turns into confusion in everything after it. - **Double traffic**: the same information travels through two channels at once. - **No report**: when you stay silent about where something stands, others have to chase you. - **Staledated requests**: a request left too long creates anxiety, and then a scramble to fix it. - **Cleaning what's clean**: doing again something already done, or asking someone else to do it. Look at what these names describe: an order that was never recorded, an update that never went out, a message that landed in the wrong place. Each of them creates work that did not need to exist. ## What recurs for you is what to disconnect You do not need to remember the whole list. According to the booklet, what recurs for each person is two or three types, and those are the ones to disconnect. Suppose an installer finds that his recurring type is the slow line. Each late reply produced another enquiry, and he ended up answering both. Or a studio owner whose type is the unclear order. Three rounds of revisions on every project began with one vague line. Or a garage owner who sends the same update by WhatsApp, by phone and by email, and every customer replies to all three. In each case, the name of one type explained a large share of the load. With a name in hand, you can treat the source of the load instead of chasing its results every day. ## Two types that look like character traits Two types on the list are easy to mistake for matters of character. The first is **reasonableness**: accepting reasons why something cannot be done, and accepting partial work as complete. Suppose an owner hears for three months in a row that something was not done because of the supplier. She accepted a reason in place of a completion. The second is **not wearing your own role**: handling the work of everyone else and leaving your own aside. Suppose an owner who handles billing, marketing and operations herself, and leaves undone the one thing only she can do. Each of the two has a booklet of its own. What matters here is that both sit on the same list. They are types of needless traffic like all the others, so they can be treated like all the others, and nobody has to write them off as character. When something looks like a trait, it seems that nothing can be done about it. When it is a type on the list, it has a name and a source you can disconnect. ## What the booklet has on this The chapter this article draws on includes the full table of types, with a short explanation for each, and two exercises: the marking, and the recurring type. After them comes a self-check. If your days feel crazy, one right name will help you more than another description of how hard they were. - [Where the Day Went](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/shop/introduction/personal-order-time): Names for what eats the day, a sort you can mark against, and one structure that takes twenty minutes to set up. --- [עברית](https://theonlyaxelj.com/he/study/articles/name-what-eats-your-day) · [Español](https://theonlyaxelj.com/es/study/articles/name-what-eats-your-day)