Cal Newport, author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World , puts a huge emphasis on the mental consequences of dealing with constant interruption. He explains that by allowing ourselves to be distracted, we're actually weakening our brains' ability to focus on "deep work" in the long term . It takes unlearning our habits of constantly checking notifications and requiring validation from our devices to retrain your brain to take full advantage of deep work.

Using concepts like the Eisenhower Matrix or Eat That Frog can put your to-do list in ...