“Don’t mean to interrupt…” they said, as they were obviously interrupting.

It’s easy to feel like every knock, text, and “quick question” is urgent, but most distractions aren’t emergencies. Even so, they can quickly break your focus and throw your deep work sessions off track.

Not every request for your attention has to be dealt with immediately. You can set or ask for a reminder at a later time. You can decline entirely. And, the best way of dealing with interruptions is to make them hard to happen. 

Today, learn how to:

• decide which interruptions are worth dealing with immediately

• decline an interruption and get back to work fast

• avoid interruptions altogether

  August 25th - How to deal with interruptions

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“She needs to sort out her priorities.”

~ Ron Weasley

Nowadays, most of us think about our priorities, as in multiple. We juggle a variety of tasks and areas of focus, always trying to figure out which one is more important in the moment, and we end up feeling stressed, scattered, and behind.

Up until the 20th century (thanks, capitalism?) priority was singular. The Latin root word prioritas means “first in rank, order, or dignity.” In this way, priority means “one.”

Then we decided more must be better. “Managing multiple priorities” is one of the most common requirements of job postings. Much like “multitasking,” this is a misleading concept. Just like real achievement comes from single-tasking at any given time, real focus comes from picking one singular priority at a time and giving it your full attention.

But with school and work and laundry and sports and friends and sleep, how can you choose? By first managing your very top priority. Once that’s squared away, you’re free to manage the next one.

How does this all fit together?

  August 24th - Priority means "one"

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Have you ever had a dream that…that you, um, you had...

Even if you’ve had a goal for months or years or even since you were a little kid, life changes. Your life changes, your ideas of your future change, and society changes around you, and this means your goals can change too.

The goal you had when you were younger, when you applied to college, or even just at the beginning of the semester may no longer serve you.

What used to make you excited may now be a bit of a downer, or even make you feel like something’s gone terribly wrong.

If you never review your goals, you might spend time chasing something that no longer matters or no longer fits your life.

That’s why it’s important to review your goals regularly. This serves two purposes.

1. You remind yourself why you’re doing all this hard work

2. You make sure this is the right hard work to be doing.

Stop working toward outdated goals. Keep your life and your goals aligned!

Take control of your time this term:

  August 23rd - Review your goals regularly

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Stop wasting your best life formatting font spacing!

Not all tasks are created equal. Some require full focus and energy, while others, like formatting fonts, highlighting notes, or copying references, can be done while watching a show, chatting with a group, hanging out in the park, or when you’re tired but still need to make progress.

By separating focused work from busy work, you can:

• do your best work during your peak focus time

• save low-energy tasks for off moments

• stop feeling drained by “busyness”

The trick is to know the difference and intentionally schedule full focus tasks for full focus time.

  August 22nd - Save busy work for "off" moments

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