There's a great tool I've used for years to force myself to focus on one thing at a time: the Action Machine by Derek Franklin. I choose my one to three things to get done that day (see this post for more on that) then set the order of the focus blocks. A "focus block" is simply a block of time focussed on only one thing. Experiment with how long works for you. I work best with 50 minute focus blocks, so my timer is set to: 1 x 50 minute focus block 1 x 10 minute relax block 1 x 50 … [Read more...]

A strategy I use every day is to pick one to three tasks that  I will complete on that day. These are relatively important things that if I complete them, I will be able to say "today was a successful/productive day". I try not to decide on those tasks at the end of the previous day (as some people have suggested) because I prefer to follow my areas of interest. What do I mean? Say you have two worthy tasks and you can only complete one in a day, wouldn't you rather do the one you're … [Read more...]