Finish before you switch

Today's action · 15 min

Pick one small task and finish it completely before starting anything else. If you must stop, write a note of the exact next step first.

Why it works

Monsell's review of task switching shows that changing tasks has a cost: people are slower and make more errors right after a switch. Finishing a chunk, or writing down where you stopped, reduces how often you pay that cost.

Source: Task switching (Monsell, 2003)