“Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.” — Paul Gauguin

Have you ever been dead set on completing an important task only to find that before you even get started, you manage to get distracted by twelve other “junk food” tasks? The problem might not be what you’re doing, but how you’re thinking about it. The human mind is wired for actions not abstraction. Many times when we plan long term tasks we do so in generalities, “I want to lose weight,” or “I want to become more organized.”

Focus

Unfortunately, tasks like these have very little traction in a mind optimized for actionable steps. If you want to sink your teeth into a long-term project, try thinking less in terms of the overall goal and more in terms of the steps that will take you there, “I am going to buy a salad today,” or “I am finally going to empty my inbox.”

If you know exactly what it is that you have to do, chances are much better that you will actually do it.

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