How to Combat Distraction: Do One Thing Each Day

Sometimes it can be difficult to be proactive and make consistent progress on your most important tasks. I know this is true for me. There are so many things that compete for my time and attention. Emails from colleagues and students. Grading papers. Responding to various requests. These are all good things that need to be done, but sometimes they don’t seem to end. When this happens, I can get distracted. My most important projects get put on the back burner. Sometimes I don’t seem to be making any progress at all.

Do One Thing Each Day

One thing that has helped me to counteract this problem is to make sure I do at least one thing each day on an important project. To make sure I don’t get distracted with all my other stuff going on, I try to do the “one thing” first thing in the morning, before I check my email, Facebook, and Twitter. I put all my energy and focus toward the “one thing” and I get it done. After it’s finished, then I can go on with the rest of my day, and respond to whatever comes up. But whatever happens the rest of the day, I know that I did at least one thing that was important to me.

Discussion: Do you get distracted by the various tasks that come up throughout your day? What do you think about trying to do at least one thing on an important project, first thing in the morning?