the productivity tip that prevents burnout

A to-do list, as organized and productive as it might make our day, can be mentally-taxing.

When you have a list of unfinished tasks laid out in front of you, it’s hard to focus on just one. You can be writing your book while thinking about those unreplied emails or the cluttered fridge that you were supposed to clean two days ago. You’d feel the urge to bounce between tasks. 

But then dividing your attention too frequently would make you feel so restless and overwhelmed that you might stop doing everything altogether. At the end of the day, nothing gets done and you’d feel bad for having an unproductive day.

It’s a vicious cycle.

In the famous book The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results, Gary Keller and Jay Papasan state that getting extraordinary results starts with just ONE thing. This will set off a sequence of events that leads to your ultimate goal.

The key is consistency. 

You have to build a habit of asking the right question, choosing the right thing and doing that thing every single day.

What the authors recommend is asking yourself this question before the new day starts:

When you get this thing done, you can already consider your day productive. Not only does it ease your mind, it creates a momentum that motivates you to do other tasks on your lists. Once this becomes habitual, you’ll even get better at prioritization. Getting your life together won’t be too far-fetched.

Just one thing a day and everything else will fall into place.