The art of distraction

How recognisable is this? You sit down in front of your PC at 8 a.m. and go through your task list for the day. A full list, but doable.

Then the mailbox opens. Phew, there are so many emails. You have to read each email and decide whether it should go to the top or the bottom of the pile. And answer them, of course, because that's what everyone expects of you. In between, you get a few phone calls and then, suddenly, it's 11.00 am. Not a single task has been completed, only more tasks have been added.

The task list has to be reordered according to priority. OK, that's it. Bravely, you start on the first, rather complicated task. Or do you take the one just below it, which you can complete quickly, so that you can tick off a few more items? Yes, that's better, then you finish that big task later. In the meantime, the email keeps coming in, it gets priority every time, consciously or not. Before you know it, the day is over. 

Three quarters of the task list is still unfinished. Not even that first, most important task, and it had a deadline... Today! Panic.

What is the right way to do it? Don't let the email distract you. If you don't react quickly enough and it's important, they will call! Re-educate them. In the meantime, you can focus on your to-do list. You see it shrinking. Wow, good. A fresh start tomorrow.

And that is also my dream. For years, I've been trying to make my inbox subordinate to the to-do list. But notifications come in everywhere: on the PC, the phone, the tablet. And whether you want to or not, you look anyway. Email remains a distraction.

Saskia Stender