A few months ago I wrote a blog post about a simple method for keeping myself on task. As with many attempts I’ve made to improve myself, whether it be through exercising, practicing a language, or trying to eat slower, I faltered at the first signs of progress. The past few days I’ve been trying to get myself back on track with more focused periods of work.
Part of that came from the realization that I have a very annoying habit of impulsively deciding that something is important enough to interrupt my work. These aren’t the normal distractions that I’ve gotten pretty good about ignoring. Rather, it’s things like remembering to call the landlord, ordering more vacuum bags, or watering plants. Each of those tasks need to get done, but doing them impulsively during work is still an interruption. Rather than simply ignoring these distractions I decided to keep track of them and then take care of them later. When I finally took a break and checked the list it surprised me how irrelevant some of the items were. Yes, there were some essential tasks, like calling the landlord, but I had also made a note to watch two different YouTube videos. While those videos were enjoyable enough, they didn’t really seem all that important once I had time to distance myself from that impulsive urge.
What surprised me even more, however, was how willing I was to clutter my productivity with yet another digital service. Gmail, twitter, my RSS reader, and facebook hold special places in my heart, but are what I battle against the most while trying to be productive. Going to those pages to create reminders should have been a last resort, yet it was my first reaction. An app, for example, would be nice and tidy, but using my phone to set a reminder would inevitably lead me to see just how many unread emails, tweets, messages, etc. are waiting for me. I’m sure the temptation to do a quick check would get the best of me more times than not. Even the Post-It notes are a bit overboard. A scrap of paper would do just fine. The only reason I opted for those sticky yellow sheets is that they’ve been sitting in my desk drawer unused for months.
"Or maybe I should go with a cloud-based solution"
"Wait a minute..."
“Getting Things Done” by David Allen talks about that exact problem. Now, I feel like the whole methodology is a bit overkill for my taste, but it gave me three great tips:
1. Use a simple tool.
2. Write everything down the moment you think of it.
3. Use baby steps for *everything*. Quicker rewards and you never feel overwhelmed.
I live by those rules and it made my life that much easier. (but my simple tool is still the iPhone. I turned off all the visible notifications and trained myself to not procrastinate with it. It works. Most of the time…)
@Peter I found “Getting Things Done” to also be overkill, but those three points are tips to live by. That’s also a great suggestion about the iPhone. It’s a fantastic tool, but it’s also just another distraction device for me.