Eliminate Distractions

Since Thanksgiving break is over I figured now would be an appropriate time to talk about being productive (thanks, Glenn). Personally, I just spent a week watching movies, finishing seasons 2 and 3 of Lost, skiing, and napping. Unfortunately there are three weeks of school left before I can remain in this state of laziness.

The tasks in our lives always have two properties: urgency and importance. Tasks which are both important and urgent are emergencies and upcoming deadlines. Tasks that are important but not urgent are things like preparation, reading materials before class and gathering research material weeks in advance. The rest of the tasks are not important and are either urgent (some phone calls and email, instant messaging) or not urgent (most email, Facebook).

Your goal should be to minimize or even eliminate those non-important tasks in your life. Without them you