deepstash
Beta
How To Set Smart Daily Goals
The one big thing
Incoming demands and digital distractions can get in the way of real productivity. If you do one big thing today, you will feel like it is a productive day.
Ask yourself: What’s the one big thing you want to accomplish today?
385 SAVES
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
7
Key Ideas
Chronically Busy
Normally, people who are busy and stressed out on constant work, eradicate their work-life balance by bringing work home or worrying about unfinished work too much, leading to stress.
Chro...
Tunnelling
When we are having a narrow cognitive bandwidth, it can help us hyper-focus but is also harmful.
Tunnelling can lead us to focus on the urgent but not so important tasks immediately in front of us, which at the end of the day isn't very productive.
Email as a Slot Machine
Email is the perfect addictive slot machine of our attention.
Our brain craves something new and likes being interrupted with some notification rather than focusing on one task continuously.
Email is pseudo work masquerading as real work and is not productive if handled all the time.
10
Key Ideas
Copying successful people
Putting highly successful people on a pedestal can unknowingly hinder our own efforts. We get caught in comparisons and it’s easy to forget that they’ve had and still have their own set of struggle...
Maximize every moment
Working well is not about maximizing every waking moment of the day, in order to get more done. And the focus on maximizing time may actually diminish our creativity.
Instead, try identifying and focusing on the few hours of the day you are most productive.
Setting Big Goals
To achieve sustainable productivity habits, it’s best to build up with easily achievable tasks.
Small chunks of accomplishment will amount to something big eventually.
9
Key Ideas
Breaks keep us from getting bored
The human brain just wasn’t built for the extended focus we ask of it these days.
The fix for this unfocused condition is simple—all we need is a brief interruption (aka a break) to ge...
Breaks and brain connections
Our brains have two modes:
- focused mode, which we use when we’re doing things like learning something new, writing or working) and
- diffuse mode, which is our more relaxed, daydreamy mode when we’re not thinking so hard.
The mind solves its stickiest problems while daydreaming—something you may have experienced while driving or taking a shower.
Breaks help us reevaluate our goals
When you work on a task continuously, it’s easy to lose focus and get lost in the weeds. In contrast, following a brief intermission, picking up where you left off forces you to take a few seconds to think globally about what you’re ultimately trying to achieve.