Acting without first reflecting can make things worse. Regularly reviewing how you spend your time will give you insight into how you got to your present state, how to move forward strategically, and how you work best in general.Make time for quiet reflection or journaling. Think about or write what stresses you, why something isn’t working, or when during the day you’re most productive.

Think About It

<ul><li>Lists help you compartmentalize your mental clutter.</li><li>Writing something on a to-do list frees up mental space, as you won’t have to remember it.</li><li>Having your responsibilities organized in one place, you can better choose what to do. </li><li>Make a priority list in addition to your to-do list with your top three priorities to ensure you’re progressing on what matters. </li><li>Create a list to record your accomplishments during the day so they can boost your motivation when you’re feeling down.</li></ul>

Use Lists

Knowing your inbox isn’t overflowing can save you a lot of mental stress, which helps you focus on more important tasks. You can reduce your message by:<ul><li>Unsubscribe from promotional and notification emails. </li><li>Use filters to sort nonessential email into specified sections of your inbox, so they don’t show up every time you log in.</li><li>Use programs to schedule emails and send reminders, so you can deal with emails on your own time. </li></ul>

Manage Your Inbox

Dump your ideas, notes, lists, and saved articles that don’t have another home into a digital document. This clears some mental space—without adding papers and notebooks to your actual junk drawer.

Have a “Mental Junk Drawer”

To-do lists tend to accumulate not so important tasks. Try to outsource and automate those you can.Good automation lets you forget the task. So instead of interrupting the flow of your workday with little tasks, you can concentrate on the high-impact stuff that requires your full focus and attention.

Automate 

After a bustling month of trips out of town, work events, and family issues, I noticed that I had some trouble quieting my buzzing mind. My focus was stuck in disco-ball mode, diffracted into a kaleidoscope of glinting pieces. As a result, I wasn't able to hone in on my priorities-and instead, I gave in to procrastination.

Think About It

Similar ideas to Think About It

Things to deprioritize

Step 3: Replace the victim thinking with something more helpful.

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