Do you have days where whatever your intentions, you just can't seem to get anything done? I particularly get them when I have a constant stream of interruptions and attention destroyers. I dare say people who are possessed of iron willpower and laser like focus can simply shrug this sort of thing off and get on with it. I however, simply make myself a cup of tea and fail to achieve anything very much. But I have got a counter-tactic which while not foolproof works often enough.
I've got a set of index cards, with fairly general activities on them. Some of them are routine things like 'clear emails' or 'work on accounts'. Others relate to specific projects. I keep them filed under 'things to do' in a little index card box. I take them out and pick an appropriate number of them for the time I have available, and how much concentration I think I'll be able to give them. Typically it is 10 minutes. So if I have 2 hours, that would be 11 cards - allowing a bit of time for switchover between tasks. I can do the same card more than once, so it doesn't need to be that many.
I pick up the first card and do 10 minutes solid on it. Then I mark it up with the date and how much time I've spent on it and either return it to the index card box or put it further down the pile I am working through.
It works pretty well for getting through times when my head just isn't in the right place. It still needs some willpower to stick to, but it is much easier to stick to 10 minutes than a longer time period. It has some obvious drawbacks. You don't get that much done in 10 minutes. And you are sacrificing a lot of time and brain power to frequently changing activities. It is basically a rubbish version of the pomodoro technique. But it beats a couple of hours passing while you put off something big and important for no particular benefit at all. And it is excellent as a counter strategy when you are being frequently interrupted or distracted.
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