If you’ve ever found yourself procrastinating important tasks (like filing your taxes) and completing more urgent tasks (like catching up on Game of Thrones before the new season starts), there is a name for that! It’s a phenomenon called the urgency effect. In a study in February 2018, researchers found that subjects were more likely to perform small but urgent tasks that had a deadline over more important tasks without a deadline.

Have no fear, there are ways to get your brain back on track. We’ll share productivity hacks including the Eisenhower Box, the 2 minute rule, and the return to Monotasking.

The Eisenhower Box

The Eisenhower Box is a tool used to organize duties and tasks in order to determine priorities. Using an Eisenhower Box, all tasks are evaluated using the criteria important/unimportant and urgent/not urgent and put in according boxes. Tasks deemed not important/not urgent are dropped, tasks in important/urgent are to be completed immediately and where possible tasks in unimportant/urgent are delegated and tasks in important/not urgent get an end date and are done personally.

The best part, anyone can do this method anywhere – get yourself a scratch piece of paper and you’re ready to roll.

The 2 Minute Rule

There are 2 parts to the 2 minute rule.

1-If it takes less than 2 minutes to complete, do it now.

2-Same principal, but now apply it to tasks that take more than 2 minutes.  Just commit to doing one part of the task. Want to start working out more, commit to 2 minutes of an exercise. Need to write an article, spend 2 minutes brainstorming. Need to clean your house? Commit to putting away the dishes. Set a timer for 2 minutes and see what you can accomplish. Chances are, once you get started you’ll keep going.

The Return of Monotasking

With all the modern technology today, we have so many opportunities to stay connected, but at the same time, that adds opportunities to become distracted and “multi-task”. The bad news, multi-tasking isn’t real, our brains can really only focus on one thing at once. When you think you’re multi-tasking, you’re actually switching tasks and decreasing your productivity.

Have no fear, you can get back on track. Set up a nice clear space for yourself, whether that’s an empty desk, or you’ve closed most of the applications and tabs on your computer. Put up your real or virtual “Do Not Disturb” sign. Now set the timer for 15-30 minutes and dedicate yourself to the task at hand. If your mind starts to wander, that’s okay, make note of the task(s) you want to switch to and get back to the task you are focusing on. With practice this will get easier and become more natural.