When I have a list of work to do, thoughts ping pongs from item to item until my mind is like a fog. After that when I want to focus on one thing, other items on the list are lurking in the background. Not good.
What I do: Write down the list of work on the left side of a piece of paper. One by one, in bullet points. Then on the right hand side, infront of each work, I write down the first step, the most easiest thing I can do to get things started.
I have primed my mind like this – just do it, just do the lazy minimal work. Just get it out of the system. No, I don’t have to be perfect. Just do it.
Then I do those first steps. I am surprised how effective that is. Not thinking much, but do that first step.
After those first step here are the insights I gathered over time.
1) Some tasks I think is hard, is just 5 minute work. Not kidding.
2) Some tasks I think is easy peasy, is actually days of work. I have not planned it well, that is why the mind fog comes in.
3) Some tasks are not worthy of my time. I could say NO with confidence with in a 10 minute first step. I save a lot of time and mind fog.
