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How do I handle a day that is only small tasks?
How do I handle a day that is only small tasks?
Batch the small tasks into one block with an end time. Give the important work a named slot before the batch, even if the slot is short.
What may actually be happening
Small tasks feel productive because they finish. They also expand. A day of them can be necessary and still hide the thing you are avoiding.
What you can do
List the errands. Give them 45 minutes, not the whole afternoon. Do the meaningful fragment first, while the list is still unstarted. When the block ends, unfinished small tasks wait. They are allowed to wait.
What not to do
Do not keep them in your head as a cloud. Do not reward every finished errand with a new one. Do not call the avoidance 'being responsible' if the important work has a date.
Try this today
Write the important fragment on paper and the small tasks on a different paper. Start the first paper. The second paper does not get to interrupt for half an hour.